Project: Moment
by Bandit3
Summary: In the year 2013, Earth is under attack...but almost nobody knows it. The secret invasion comes from the Digital World, and an elite corps is assembled to fight it...but what will be the cost to those who go? (Time for the next test...Ch. 14 is loaded!)
1. Introduction

~*Project: Moment*~  
  
A Digimon Fanfic by Bandit  
  
(Bandit's notes- This is set in the year 2013, ten years after Season 02. I'd rate it at about a PG-13. I usually don't swear in my fics, but it somehow fits this particular fic to have a little profanity. Oh, and a 'sasquatch' is a NW Indian word for Bigfoot.)  
  
  
~*Introduction*~  
  
The city of Tokyo is a big place. Thousands upon thousands of people live there. And if a few, just a handful of those thousands upon thousands were to...disappear, there would be no great ripple in the fabric of the lives living themselves out in the city. At least, that was the theory behind the Project.  
  
It needed no code name, for it was The Project, the mother of all projects ever created by mankind. For this was the last-ditch attempt of humanity to save itself from a threat that 99% of the human population didn't even know existed. It would make or break the future of the world; it was our only hope.  
  
If, in the course of this great, life-spanning endeavor, a few people were changed forever, what did it matter? In the great scheme of things, those chosen to be a part of the Project should have been honored to leave their old lives behind and run off to save the human race. Unfortunately, it didn't always work that way, and lives were torn asunder as nearly half of the people chosen refused to go gallivanting off on some crazy mission. Fortunately-at least in the eyes of those behind the Project-an even half of the Core group, the people who were most needed, even vital, for this mission, agreed to join.  
  
The other half was left behind. The Project coordinators weren't worried. They would come.  
  
When they saw what awaited humanity, if they had a shred of decency, they would realize they had no choice.  
  
~*~ 


	2. Life Goes On

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 1- Life Goes On*~  
  
  
Sora Takenouchi hurried down a sidewalk in a suburb of Tokyo, her shopping bag swinging at her side as she repeatedly mentally bashed herself in the head.  
  
*Late late late!* she wailed. *Mimi will be fit to be tied!* She shook her head and began to jog, her bag slapping her legs as she loped along. *I can't believe I'm late today, of all days! I feel like a fifteen-year-old girl again, trying to make it to tennis practice on time...* She smiled momentarily at the thought, and then sighed and broke into a real run.  
  
A loud knock at the door of the Ishidas' apartment brought Matt's head up instantly from the piece of sheet music which he was grinding away at enthusiastically with the eraser end of a much-chewed pencil.  
  
"Mimi?" he called into the living room. "I think Sora's here."  
  
Mimi bustled into the room, putting on her coat. "Phew! That's a relief. I was starting to think she wasn't going to show up at all..." She paused mid-buttoning to glance at the paper. "Oh, are you still stuck?"  
  
"As a pig in a fence," Matt said, putting his chin in his hands. "I rhymed myself into a corner again. I can't think of another word that rhymes with 'must'. At least, not one I can use."  
  
"Have you tried the thesaurus?" she said, settling herself on the floor to put on her shoes.  
  
"I can't find it," he muttered. "I think I lent it to Cody for an entrance exam, a couple of weeks ago. He was worried about sounding redundant on the essay questions."  
  
Mimi sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Well, in that case, I'll buy you a new one while I'm out. That one's never going to see the light of day again."  
  
Glancing up, Matt laughed. "Yeah, you'd think a guy that disciplined would keep his room a little neater..." He frowned at the sight of her scrunched up on the floor of the little foyer-area. "Are you sure it's okay for you to sit like that?"  
  
She laughed. "We'll be fine, Matt. By the time I have to worry about sitting like this, it'll be physically impossible anyway. Now stop worrying about me and worry about your song instead."  
  
"I guess..." Matt said, looking uncertain. Mimi laughed and stood up easily.  
  
"See? I'm just fine." She leaned over to kiss his cheek, then grabbed her purse and headed out the door. "You'll just have to trust me," she called over her shoulder. Matt nodded. Suddenly his eyes lit up.  
  
"That's it! 'Trust'!"  
  
"You see? There you go!" Mimi said, and the door swung shut. Matt leaned over his paper again, his pencil dancing over the page. He reached the end of the line, and then stopped, his face falling into a long-suffering expression.  
  
"Not again..." After a moment of contemplation, he got to his feet. "I need a break," he announced to the empty apartment, and began to rummage through the cupboards for coffee grounds and a mug.  
  
Mimi greeted a breathless Sora outside the apartment, grinning.  
  
"I see you've gotten some exercise."  
  
"You...could say...that," Sora gasped. The two women headed for the down elevator, Mimi staying miraculously quiet to allow Sora a chance to catch her breath.  
  
"So, how have you been doing?" Sora finally said as they left the elevator for the lobby.  
  
A mischievous sparkle crept into Mimi's eyes. "You mean me, Matt, or the baby?" she said. Sora shrugged.  
  
"All three, I guess."  
  
"Well, I'm fine; Matt's been suffering from writer's block for the last few days and he needs a new song for that album they're planning, so that's been a trial, but he's making gradual headway; and the baby is the same as ever." Mimi patted her stomach, which was only just starting to round out, and smiled.  
  
Sora smiled back. Motherhood, impending or otherwise, suited Mimi surprisingly well; she'd had a sort of glow hanging around her ever since she'd found out she was pregnant, and it hadn't faded with time and morning sickness.  
  
Today's shopping trip was for baby clothes and basics; she wasn't due for months yet, but both women liked having things done in advance, particularly in this case. Mimi was not enamored with the idea of trying to shop while she resembled some poor sap who'd accidentally swallowed a watermelon. They were planning to meet Yolei at Exotica, their favorite restaurant, and then head out to the mall.  
  
"You know, I was afraid they were going to stop serving breakfast by the time you arrived," Mimi joked, checking her watch, "but I think that we'll be fine as long as we catch the next bus."  
  
Sora nodded. "Are you getting one of those sticky things of yours?"  
  
"You mean a hot-fruit turnover?" Mimi said, smiling at the apt description. "No, I'm going with a *cold* fruit platter, thank you very much. Those things are the size of dinner plates, and I'm getting less and less room in here, in case you forgot. I'm supposed to eat healthy stuff, anyway."  
  
A wicked grin appeared on Sora's face. "That's too bad, because I'm getting one. And I'm eating it right in front of you, too."  
  
"You wouldn't!" Mimi gasped melodramatically.  
  
"I would."  
  
"Look, Sora, if this is payback for the time you were trying to diet to fit into your prom dress and I came over and brought that Godiva sampler so you would 'know what not to eat', I'm *sorry* already!"  
  
Sora pretended to cackle evilly, Mimi grinned, and the bus pulled up.  
  
  
~*~  
  
  
Seven hours and what felt like a million stores later, Sora and Mimi stepped off of the five-fifteen back where they'd started, laden with shopping bags and giggling comfortably in the manner of people who have been laughing all day.  
  
"...and when Yolei went up to the register with those sleepers!"  
  
"I know! I kept wondering why she looked so red, and then I realized that the cashier was that dippy friend of hers...what's her name?"  
  
"Kyoko, I think."  
  
"Oh, right. And her eyes got all big, and she went..." Sora assumed a wide-eyed, vacantly surprised look. "'Oh, Yolei, I didn't know *you* were expecting!'"  
  
"I'm never going to forget the look on her face," Mimi giggled. Sora grinned, suddenly thinking of something that drove her to new heights of hilarity.  
  
"It's a lucky thing Ken wasn't there, or he would have died..." she gasped. Mimi blinked at her for a stunned second before joining her in helpless giggles.  
  
"Oh...we'd better get upstairs before I collapse right here on the sidewalk," she managed. Sora nodded, snapping her a salute.  
  
"Yes Ma'am!" When Mimi gave her a funny look, she added confidentially, "If I let you collapse *anywhere*, Matt's going to scatter my ashes to the four winds." Mimi snorted. "Oh, c'mon, Mimi. I think it's cute the way he gets so worried about you and the baby," she said plaintively as they walked inside.  
  
"Yeah, well, you don't have to live with him," Mimi complained, but smiled anyway. It *was* kind of sweet, in an annoying way. But annoying or not, she was willing to put up with it. After all, this was Matt they were discussing. They headed onto the elevator, which had just come down to let a half-dozen people off.  
  
Sora noticed that Mimi's eyes had taken on a distant, happy look and repressed a smile. "He's going to make a great dad," she commented. Mimi grinned.  
  
"Yeah, I know..." she said happily. "Anyone who saw how good he was with TK when we were kids would know that."  
  
Sora nodded in agreement as they stepped out of the elevator and strolled toward the Ishidas' apartment. Stopping in front of the door, Mimi fished a plastic flower key-ring out of her purse and unlocked the door, then walked inside, looking around. She spotted Matt stretched out on the couch, sleeping soundly, and giggled.  
  
"Oh, the poor guy. He was up all last night trying to write."  
  
"No wonder he's asleep," Sora said. "He'd better enjoy it while he can; he's only got a few more months of it before you'll both be missing more sleep than either of you can afford."  
  
Mimi winced. "Don't remind me." She tossed her jacket over the back of a kitchen chair and leaned over to look at the much-smudged sheet of music. Suddenly, she burst out laughing.  
  
"What?" Sora said, confused.  
  
"He finished it," Mimi said, eyes sparkling.  
  
Sora frowned. "How can you tell?" she said, looking over Mimi's shoulder. She caught the joke the minute she saw the paper clearly. It was filled with writing and notes, but that wasn't what caught the eye about it.  
  
What *did* catch the eye was the large 'THANK GOD!!!!' scrawled across the bottom of the paper. Sora joined Mimi in giggles that quickly turned into hysterics. All the humor of the day and the good feelings about the impeding baby snowballed together until both women were leaning on each other, crying with laughter.  
  
"Hmmmggghuuuh..."  
  
A quiet groan from the living room silenced them instantly, and they hurried to look into the room. Matt was sitting up, holding a hand blearily to his head.  
  
"G'morning," he slurred sleepily, blinking repeatedly. Mimi's hands flew to her face.  
  
"Oh! I'm sorry...we woke you up, didn't we?"  
  
"T'sokay," he said, gradually looking less like the living dead and more like the handsome songwright Sora knew. "I was going to get up around now anyway, to get dinner started."  
  
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Mimi said. Matt snorted.  
  
"Then what are we going to eat?" he said with a touch of amusement in his voice. Mimi scowled at him.  
  
"Hey! I can cook just fine."  
  
"Mm-hmm. Hey, Sora, back me up here, unless you want to see an innocent man poisoned."  
  
"You'd deserve it," Mimi retorted, but by now she was plainly teasing. Sora joined in.  
  
"I wouldn't exactly call you 'innocent', Matt...but you're right, I don't want you dead. Who would send over casseroles when I'm too tired to cook?"  
  
"Yolei?" Mimi suggested. Sora pretended to blanch in terror.  
  
"Oh, Lord help us all. She's as bad as you, Mimi." She paused. "Hm. Then again, maybe not...that would be a hard act to top."  
  
"Argh! They're all against me! It's a conspiracy!" Mimi wailed. Matt laughed and stood up, catching Mimi by surprise in a one-armed hug and pulling her close to his side, then kissing the top of her head.  
  
"Not quite *all* of us," he said warmly, making Mimi blush.  
  
"You messed up my hair," she pretended to complain.  
  
"Hey, that's my line!" Matt replied, then frowned and looked critically at her ponytail. "Besides, that isn't messed up at all." He looked at it for another long moment, then reached up and gave her a noogie. "*Now* it's messed up!" he said smugly, and ducked the hand that reached up to whap him, then vaulted over the sofa to take shelter behind it.  
  
"Ooooh, you're going to get it now!" she shrieked, and began to chase him around the sofa as he hooted with laughter. Sora grinned.  
  
"Well, I'll take this delightful scenario to mean that you're fully awake again, Matt," she said in tones of great amusement. "Should I leave you to Mimi's vengeance, then?"  
  
"Ack! No!" he exclaimed. "Not until I think of...hey, wait!" Suddenly, he stopped stock-still, making Mimi run smack into him. The couple fell in a heap on the sofa, laughing in a contentedly tired way. "I was hoping that would work," Matt said weakly, grinning. Mimi was the first to sit up, pulling the elastic out of her ruined hair and shaking it out into a cloud of brown around her head.  
  
"I feel like an ugly old Sasquatch," she complained good-naturedly. Matt propped himself on his elbows to look at her.  
  
"You, an ugly Sasquatch? Never! You're the prettiest Sasquatch I've ever seen."  
  
Mimi laughed. "What would your mother say if she knew you'd married a Sasquatch?"  
  
"She'd want to know if you could cook," Matt said with a grin.  
  
"And when you told her I'm hopeless?" Mimi inquired. Matt laughed and reached up to pull her down into a hug.  
  
"She'd say what a lucky thing it is I'm here to take care of you," he said softly, his voice muffled by her hair. Mimi blushed.  
  
"Hardly," she scoffed, but snuggled up to him anyway. Sora sweatdropped, placing a hand behind her head.  
  
"Uhm, I'll just let myself out, then, you two being so busy and all..."  
  
Both Mimi and Matt went red to the tips of their ears. "Oh, sorry..." Matt said sheepishly. "Sure, I guess."  
  
"Bye, then. Have fun, Mimi; don't stay up too late. Matt needs his sleep, remember?" she called over her shoulder. They blushed again, but Sora caught a glimpse of them starting to kiss as she closed the door behind herself. *Those two*, she thought amusedly to herself. *It's no wonder they have their own apartment. They'd wear out their welcome real quick anywhere else...*  
  
She smiled. It was sweet, really. Matt and Mimi were head-over-heels for each other. She felt lucky to be friends with two people who were so in love. It always felt good to be around them; they radiated a deep sort of contentment that was something special in itself. Sora knew how precious that feeling was; she'd only felt it once before, but she'd never forgotten it, or the person she'd felt it with...  
  
And she'd never feel it again. Her smile faded. *Tai...* she thought mournfully, feeling the euphoria of the day slip away. That perfect feeling had come once; the one time they'd kissed. She'd felt like nothing bad would ever happen to her again. But she'd been wrong. That perfect day had been the day before...  
  
*The day before...*  
  
Sora scowled, pushing the memory away. *Oh, stop it!* she scolded herself. *It was three years ago! Quit running yourself ragged over someone who's long gone!* Sighing, she hurried out of the elevator; she'd gotten all the way to the lobby in the time she'd spent wrapped in her own thoughts. *Someone I'll never see again... All right, that's enough!* she thought fiercely, giving herself a few mental slaps to snap out of this silliness.  
  
Trotting off down the street, she passed a park on the way to her house. The sight of a couple of kids kicking a soccer ball stirred up the whole fruit cocktail of negativity that she'd just gotten under control again, and she frowned and walked faster until the park was out of sight. *Can't I go through just one day without remembering and getting all depressed again?* she thought beseechingly, doing her best to concentrate on the pretty flowers in that window-box a few floors up, or the nice dress that girl was wearing, or the colorful poster in that shop window advertising a production of Grease...  
  
Her and Tai's favorite musical...  
  
"Gaaaahhhh!" she cried, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to clap her hands to her head. Several passersby gave her funny looks, and a few swerved their paths to avoid coming to close to her. "Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up!" she yelled. The number of pedestrians going out of their way to stay out of her range increased.   
  
Taking deep breaths to avoid hyperventilation, she finally realized what a stir she must be causing and calmed down. Brushing self-consciously at her sleeves, she glanced around to meet the gaze of at least a dozen concerned onlookers.  
  
"Uh...hi," she said lamely, then blushed and hurried away. *Good grief, I just made a total fool of myself! That's it; this has officially gone overboard. I am going home now to soak in a hot tub, and read cheap detective novels, the kind Tai hates, and forget totally about him for a while! So there!*  
  
Nodding resolutely, she stopped in front of the suburban house that she rented from an elderly woman called Mrs. Murakami and fished for her key in the flowerpot by the door.  
  
"Huh...that's funny," she murmured, frowning. "It's not here..." Shrugging, she straightened and walked over to the little one-car garage, working the twirl padlock and slipping it off of its metal loops, and then grabbing the slide-up door handle and grunting as she yanked it up. Stepping into the garage, she slid it back down. It rumbled into place without much of a hitch; it was usually fine once she'd gotten it past its' 'sticky spot' at the bottom. Turning around and switching on the light, she looked around in confusion...and then in shock.  
  
"What the...? What happened here?!" The garage was strewn with her auto equipment and Mrs. Murakami's junk, much of it broken in some way. The orderly metal shelves were cockeyed and dented; one of them had fallen over, and paint cans and garden tools littered the floor. One of the cans had lost its lid, and Royal Blue #21 was pooled on the concrete around it. The entire room had been trashed.  
  
Sora knelt carefully and picked up a framed picture of herself and Mimi that normally hung on the wall by the door to the rest of the house, turning it over in her hands. The glass was shattered, and the picture had been slashed from corner to corner, as if whatever knocked it off the wall had done so with a heavy machete or some other sort of bladed weapon. She frowned and carefully touched the tear in the picture. *Who did this?*  
  
A muffled crash sounded from deeper inside the house. Sora looked up, her eyes wide. "Hello?" she said softly. "Hello...is anybody there?" No answer. Shivering, she got to her feet. *This is too creepy. I'm getting out of here and calling the police, right now!*  
  
She started for the garage door, but almost before she could put one foot in front of the other, another, louder crash came from the other side of the door. Freezing in place for a critical second, she turned to look at the door-  
  
Just as a scythed green blade came smashing through it, splintering the wood, and began trying to wrench the remains of the door out of its frame. Sora screamed and fell to her knees, yanking on the garage door.  
  
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Open, dammit, open!!" she wailed at the stuck door, but it wouldn't budge. Behind her, the ruined wood gave, and green terror came smashing through into the garage. Sora threw up her arms to shield herself in a futile gesture, but it was already upon her with a feral roar.  
  
"Sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!"  
  
A female scream echoed through the house, but no one was there to hear it. The razor-limbed creature was quick and brutal in its work, and there was no Biyomon to protect her now; it was over almost before it began...  
  
It took Sora a few minutes to realize through the fog of pain that she lay in that the creature had gone. The fog faded, and she realized that her head was strangely crystal-clear. Her body felt numb, and it was a struggle to move. Something wet was running into her eyes; she reached up clumsily to wipe it away, and her hand came away dripping red. *Blood? I'm bleeding. I have to go for help...*  
  
She tried to sit up, but her muscles wouldn't obey her at first. She managed to drag herself into a half-kneeling position, bracing herself with her hands. The clear-headed feeling was fading away with her attempts to move, and her numbness was beginning to give way to pain again. Looking down, she dimly realized that blood was running freely down her body, spattering the floor.  
  
*I'm making a mess,* she thought dizzily, as the room began to spin around her. *Mrs. Murakami's going to be furious...* Blood loss and pain were taking their toll; her last thought as she collapsed to the floor again was that the creature that had done this had looked familiar...  
  
And then everything went black.  
  
  
~*~ 


	3. Love's Awakening

**Chapter 2- Love's Awakening**  
  
"Oh, God...get her in here, quick!"  
  
"What happened?!"  
  
"Snimon attack. One of the ferals, we think. It was stopped by our team on the way to Yolei's apartment."  
  
"Was anyone else hurt?"  
  
"Not to our knowledge. It hit Hida's dorm first, but luckily it was the middle of a class and no one was there. The dorm was trashed, though, and they'll want an explanation."  
  
She drifted back into consciousness slowly, gradually becoming aware of a flurry of activity. *Where...am I? Shouldn't I be dead?*  
  
"Let them make up their own. They'll probably call it a sorority prank, or something like that. Iori might figure it out, but he won't spill." The voice was distracted, and oddly familiar. Sora frowned, or tried to frown, but her face wouldn't respond... "Get her clothes off."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Do you want her to die? The immersion has to be complete, or she's not going to pull through this!"  
  
"Oh, God... You're serious, aren't you."  
  
"Would I kid about something like this?"  
  
Sora tried to move again, but her limbs were like lead. Her eyes were closed, but these voices...she knew them! Who...  
  
She felt herself lifted in strong arms, and being carried somewhere. That familiar voice was talking again.  
  
"You're going to be okay now. You're safe here."  
  
She trusted this person, somehow.  
  
"She can't hear you, you know."  
  
"How do you know that? Maybe it'll help, somehow, if she hears a voice she knows. It'd sure make me feel a lot better."  
  
She was being lowered into something, now. Whatever it was felt like a warm bath, sort of...but different...  
  
"You're grasping at straws. You realize that, don't you?"  
  
"Nobody asked *you*. Besides, what else am I supposed to do?!" The voice broke on those last words. A pause, and several deep breaths, as though the speaker was struggling against losing it. "I'm getting out of here..."  
  
The arms let go of her; she wanted to catch hold of them and plead with this person not to leave her alone here, but she still couldn't move. Footsteps hurried out of the room, and she heard a door close.  
  
"Leave him alone. He's scared senseless for her, can't you tell?"  
  
"He's acting like a moron. She'll be fine."  
  
"We don't know that."  
  
"What?"  
  
"She's got some bad internal damage, and she's lost a lot of blood. He's got good reason to be worried sick. I'm giving her a transfusion along with the immersion therapy, but I don't know if it'll be enough to save her..."  
  
"But...that's the best we've got!"  
  
"I know..."  
  
Silence for a long time. Then...  
  
"You know, sometimes I think you haven't grown up at all from when we were all kids in the Digiworld."  
  
The other person didn't reply, and Sora felt herself slipping away again. She wondered who this `he' was, and why he cared...  
  
*I'll make it, don't worry. I'm a fighter...*  
  
The sounds and sensations faded, as she drifted away again.  
  
Her return to consciousness was gradual and piecemeal. She slowly became aware of the fact that she didn't hurt anymore, and then of the fact that she was floating...suspended in some kind of liquid. She also realized that she was wearing a mask of some sort, probably to allow her to breathe, and that there was a tube leading to a needle in her arm. It didn't hurt, but it was one of the weirder sensations she'd felt in her life. She was also not wearing anything besides this equipment, as far as she could tell. So far, she hadn't heard anyone nearby, so this didn't bother her.  
  
*Where am I, anyway?* She'd never heard of a hospital that floated people in bathtubs of warm Jell-O, which was about the consistency of this stuff she was in. She frowned, and this time she succeeded in making her face move. Heartened by this discovery, she tried wiggling a finger. The finger responded perfectly.  
  
*Oh, very good. Now let's try a hand.* She clenched and unclenched her fist, then both fists. The needle moved in her arm, which was an even weirder sensation than having it there in the first place, but both hands worked nicely. Her legs and arms all proved fully mobile, as well. With motor movement all sorted out, she began to explore her `residence'.  
  
Her first impression of a `bathtub' turned out to be pretty close to the mark; she was in a metal and rubber tank of some sort, of about the size and shape, at least internally, of a large bathtub. A soft hum of machinery came from someplace behind the wall near her head, and there were pipes with wire-mesh covers blocking their mouths leading into the tank here and there, as well as a series of filters, or so she guessed them to be by the flow of the Jell-O stuff into and out of them, down by her feet.  
  
Reaching up with her free, un-needled arm, she discovered that the Jell-O stuff had a surface about a foot above her, and that there was a lid over the top of the tank about eight inches above that surface, metal from the feel of it, with a `glass' window above her face. She doubted it was real glass, or anything that would shatter and hurt her.  
  
Pushing herself up onto her elbows, cautiously so as not to disturb the needle, she let as much of her head as would fit, surface, and balanced on one elbow while she reached up to wipe the goo out of her eyes with the other hand. Blinking in the light, she opened her eyes and looked up through the `glass' at the room outside.  
  
Her first impression was decidedly unsatisfying. All she could see was a white ceiling and an electric light fixture; hardly what she would call a view. It certainly didn't tell her anything about where she was.  
  
"Um, hello?" she said awkwardly into the mask, feeling sheepish and silly. Who was going to hear her with this stupid thing on, even if anyone was there? "Hello..." she tried again anyway, feeling that at least she was *doing* something that might get her noticed. "Ah, is anybody there? Where am I? What happened...?" She sighed. No one was there. She was stuck here indefinitely, until somebody came to check on her...assuming that anyone even would.  
  
*This sucks...*  
  
A bespectacled face suddenly popped into sight in the glass window, grinning cheerfully and taking her completely by surprise.  
  
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty."  
  
"AAAAAGGHHH!"  
  
The face frowned, then suddenly looked embarrassed.  
  
"Oh...sorry..." His voice was a bit muffled by the layer of `glass', but very audible all the same.  
  
"Good God, Joe, don't *do* that to me!" she yelled, then did a comical double take. "Joe?!"  
  
"In the flesh," Joe said with a smile. "I'm guessing from your lungpower that you're feeling a bit better. Would you mind toning it down a little? This is a ward, you know; there are people trying to sleep."  
  
"I'm sorry," she said more quietly. "I didn't realize...a ward? Where? What are you doing here? What am *I* doing here?! How-"  
  
"Okay, a little slower please. Take a few deep breaths and calm down," Joe said gently. "You're not quite better yet. That Snimon carved you up pretty good, you know."  
  
"Pretty well," she automatically corrected, then blinked. "Snimon? Is that what that thing was?"  
  
"I'm afraid so," Joe said. "One of the feral ones."  
  
"The what now?"  
  
He sighed. "Nevermind. Here, I'll explain later. For now, I'll stick to your other questions. This is a ward in the Project headquarters. I can't tell you where; I'm not even sure where we are exactly, geographically that is. It's classified information, and they haven't given it to us yet. I'm here because I volunteered, and I'm the head of this particular ward. You're here because our team that was following the rogue Snimon found you half-dead in your garage and brought you here. And you are one lucky woman; if they hadn't acted quickly, you'd be in extremely bad shape right now."  
  
Sora frowned, trying to take all this in. "So...you saved me?"  
  
"I, and the team that found you, and my `assistants' did. You can thank us later; for now, I bet you want to get out of that tank, and according to the readouts I'm getting, you're ready to finish healing on your own."  
  
Suddenly remembering exactly how much she was wearing, Sora blushed.  
  
"Uh...how exactly do I get out?" she said awkwardly. Joe realized what was bugging her and blushed a little himself.  
  
"Don't worry, the window just shows you from the shoulders up. I'll unlatch the lid and leave you some clothes; you can take off the mask on your own. It was just to let you breathe in the immersion tank solution. I'll take care of the needle once you're changed."  
  
Sora sighed with relief. "Sounds reasonable to me. How soon can you do all this?"  
  
"Right now," Joe said, holding up a bundle and then disappearing from sight. A click at the side of the lid told her it was probably unlocked; she waited a few minutes, then reached up and pushed the lid open. It opened easily, and she sat up, pulling off the mask and hanging it by its tubes over the side of the tank, and scanned the room.  
  
Joe was nowhere in sight. The white bundle lay on a little table by the tank, and she figured it was a medical gown or something that wouldn't be ruined by the translucent goop that still clung to her skin in a film. The room was small and white-walled, and hers was the only tank in it. She wondered idly what Joe had meant by `people are trying to sleep', and was about to climb out of the tank when a small sound caught her ear. She turned to look...and almost fainted right back into the tank again.  
  
A male form was curled up on a low sofa against the opposite wall, obviously fast asleep. Since his eyes were closed, that wasn't what shocked her.  
  
What *did* stun her was the unforgettable dandelion-poof of brown hair and the familiar lines of the sleeping face.  
  
"Tai...?" she whispered, not sure if she believed her eyes. He stirred a little at the sound of her voice, but didn't wake up.  
  
His movement reminded her of the potential situation should he wake up suddenly before she made use of the bundle on the table, and she turned back to it and opened it, her body working on autopilot in a sense of self-preservation while her mind whirled.  
  
*Tai? Here? Well, of course he's here; he agreed to come, didn't he? He went, and I didn't, and that's all there is to it. Three years is a long time...* The bundle turned out to be not a hospital gown, but a towel, a pullover white top, and a pair of blue-gray pants that reminded her of leggings, as well as undergarments. The part of her mind that wasn't incoherent with surprise at that point was pleased. She toweled most of the goo off and put the clothes on (the shirt was a little awkward, thanks to the needle, but the rest was fine), then, fully dressed, turned back to the silent form on the sofa.  
  
Sitting down on the edge of the tank, she watched his sleeping face. Curled up like that, he looked innocent, almost childlike; he was hardly the angry twenty-two-year-old that she remembered from the last time she'd spoken to him.  
  
*The last time I thought I'd ever speak to him,* she thought, half in irony, half in wonder. *And there he is...and three years isn't so long after all. At least, not anymore.* It had seemed like forever while it was happening, but now?  
  
*Now, I just get to wonder if he's going to agree with me...or just slam the door in my face again.* She sighed and put her face in her hands.  
  
"I'm here, okay?" she murmured to the oblivious Taichi. "That's what you wanted, isn't it? I'm here, and I don't know how to leave, and I hope you're happy, so can we please call it pax?"  
  
"I see you're dressed," Joe's voice came from the doorway. Sora's head whipped around in surprise, and she glared at the hapless bluenette.  
  
"Will you quit doing that? Some people might be having private conversations!"  
  
"That's a pretty one-sided conversation, if you ask me," Joe said, looking critically at the soundly sleeping Tai. He ignored the redoubled poisonous look Sora gave him, and held up a hand. "I'm going to make a doctor's order now. Two, in fact."  
  
"I'm listening," Sora said uncertainly.  
  
"One, I know you won't like it, but you need to stay here until you're completely healed. If you have complications from something we didn't find and take care of the first time, this is the best place you can possibly be to be treated. We have technology here that isn't going to be released to the general public for years to come. The best hospital in the world couldn't keep up with us, and you are too valuable to take chances with on this."  
  
Sora gave him a confused look, and he shrugged. "That was a direct quote to me from Command. Don't ask me what it means. Anyway, on to point two. He," Joe gestured towards Tai, "has not gotten a wink of sleep in the last two-and-a-half days."  
  
"I've been here for three days...?" Sora said incredulously. Joe nodded.  
  
"He's been burning the midnight oil `standing watch' over you, even though we have instruments that were doing it much better than he could. I gave up trying to talk him out of it by the first day, but now that he's finally dropped off, and now that you're stable, I'd like to request that you let him sleep as long as he needs. And he needs hours."  
  
"When did he fall asleep?" Sora said, in a quieter tone than the one she'd been using. She was touched by the show of devotion. *Maybe I don't need to worry after all... Still, I'm not assuming anything until I get a chance to talk to him. It'd be too easy to get hurt if I'm wrong.*  
  
"He dozed off about four hours ago," Joe said, reaching for the needle in her arm. Before she could react, he did something with it and then gave it a sort of twisting tug, and it slid out neatly.  
  
"Ow!" Sora yelped. It hadn't hurt a lot, but it had stung. "Warn me next time!"  
  
"If I had, you would have been nervous and you might have messed me up somehow," Joe said with impeccable reason, taking the needle and the attached tube over to a sink and throwing it away. He pressed one of a bank of buttons on a console on the wall, and then rummaged in a drawer before coming back with a band-aid. "Here. That's going to feel kind of weird for a while...have you ever had blood drawn?"  
  
"Yeah..." Sora giggled in spite of herself at the Muppets print on the band-aid. *Like I was a kid again,* she thought.  
  
"Well, it's going to feel kind of like that. We've improved on the needles used by modern hospitals in many ways, but not in that area."  
  
"Oh, swell," Sora muttered, remembering the achy, itchy feeling she'd had around the place where the needle had been. It was pretty annoying...but not really a major problem. Joe handed her a pair of shoes.  
  
"Here, I'm running you a bath. You'll want to get that muck off of you." He sighed. "Sorry about that. I've improved on the original a lot, but I can't seem to get rid of the tendency to cling to the skin."  
  
"You invented this?" Sora said, stunned. Joe grinned.  
  
"I sure did! I was the head of the board of physicians on the project. It was my idea."  
  
"It's genius," Sora said with an appreciative smile.  
  
"Yeah, but there's still the stickiness factor, and...people who've used it complain about an aftertaste in their mouths. They say it tastes like-"  
  
"Like hazelnuts, only nasty?" Sora finished. She'd noticed the taste, but hadn't thought it had anything to do with the tank. Joe nodded.  
  
"Sorry about that, too. Here, I'll show you to that bath. We've got a bunch of little attached bathrooms around here. And I'll get you some real clothes." Without bothering to explain what he meant by that, he led her off into the hallway.  
  
*Hm...`real' clothes?* Both Joe and Tai were wearing similar outfits, now that she thought about it; blue-gray uniform-type things, with colored bands at the wrists and neck. Tai's had had orange bands, and Joe's were navy blue. Joe wore a white lab-coat sort of deal over his `uniform'. Before she had a chance to ponder the significance of the clothes further, they had reached a row of numbered doors and Joe was opening one and leading her inside.  
  
"I got the bath running a few minutes ago, so it should be full," Joe said. Sora remembered him hitting a button when he went to get her band-aid and blinked.  
  
*Man, this place is technology central! No wonder Izzy decided to come...*  
  
Then her thoughts were captured by the sight of a large bathtub, a real one this time, very full and topped with a thick layer of luxurious-looking foam.  
  
"You know, I think I like this place," she announced. Joe laughed.  
  
"I thought you might. Here, I'll go get those clothes, and someone to instruct you in putting them on. They're a little confusing if you don't know how they work. See you later," he said, and was gone before she could return the goodbye.  
  
*If I don't know how they work? Huh... Well, he's as frenetic as ever,* Sora thought with a wry smile. *I wonder if the others have changed any?* The idea that she could idly speculate about what the `others' would be like when she saw them again filled her with a pleasant warmth. *I'm going to see them again! I really am!* Grinning, she headed for the bath.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Okay, now comes the oh-so-familiar rant...two reviews?!! *Two* measly reviews, for my darling Taiora baby?!!!! *sobs*  
  
Please, people, have a heart and take pity on a starving artist! Onegai! (please!) Review! Thankies... -O_o bandit 


	4. Missy

~*~ Project Moment ~*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
**Chapter 3- Missy**  
  
Some time later, a knock on the door sounded. Sora had been sitting on the edge of the now-empty tub, wrapped in a voluminous white towel and thinking. Standing up, she went to the door and peeked out around it.  
  
An unfamiliar girl of about eighteen with dark blue hair, her bangs cut into a rainbow of colorfully dyed spikes, was standing outside. She was clothed in a gray-blue uniform, similar in cut to the ones Joe and Tai had been wearing, but tighter and without the colored bands. Instead, it had what looked like embroidered whirls up the side seams. *Embroidery? Okay, that's a little out-of-place...* In her arms was a gray-blue bundle of cloth. Sora opened the door.  
  
"Joe sent me to tell a newbie how to get dressed," the girl said frankly as soon as she was inside. "You look pretty old for a newbie."  
  
"Believe me, I didn't intend to be one," Sora said. The girl grinned.  
  
"Oh, a pick-up. I see. I'm Misube, but you can call me Missy." She held out a hand. "And you are?"  
  
"Sora," Sora said, shaking the offered limb. "Takenouchi Sora."  
  
Missy's jaw dropped. "You're Love! Aren't you? You're one of the Left Behind!"  
  
Sora blinked at her, utterly confused. "What? I...had the Crest of Love, yes..." *Newbies? Pick-ups? Left Behind? What language is she speaking?*  
  
Missy's eyes lit up. "Then you're really *the* Takenouchi Sora! I can't believe you're finally here! Are the others coming too? Did they come to their senses?"  
  
"Hold on just a minute," Sora said, holding up her hands. "Would you mind explaining what on earth you're talking about?"  
  
"You're Love," Missy explained impatiently, as if it was all too obvious. "You're one of the Left Behind; the Core group that didn't agree to come in the first Gathering." Noticing the blank look on Sora's face, she winced and tossed her the bundle. "Here. Put this on while I explain a little."  
  
Sora unrolled it and looked at it. The garment was all one piece, and made of an odd, slightly spongy-feeling cloth, a bit thicker than most textiles she'd seen before. It reminded her of nothing so much as a stylishly cut wetsuit. It was the same blue-gray as the other uniforms, and sported yellow bands at the wrists and neck. It also had a slit down the back to help put it on, but Sora couldn't see any way of closing the slit. With it came black ankle boots. She shrugged and began to put it on, deciding to ask about the meaning of the colored bands later.  
  
"Okay. The Gatherings are the times that the Command-that's the guys in charge-recruits new people to come here to the Project headquarters. These new people are called newbies, at least by us veterans," here she grinned ironically, and Sora got the impression that she had been a newbie only recently herself, "and they're usually pretty incompetent until we straighten them out on how everything works here. Even the bathrooms are high-tech..."  
  
She snorted irreverently, and Sora decided that she liked the good-naturedly blunt teenager. She reminded Sora of Cody, who had been so eager to come, but had been only fifteen when they'd gotten the call, too young to leave home... In fact, she was just about the boy's age, too. As if reading Sora's mind, the next topic Missy moved to was ages.  
  
"Most of the newbies are about seventeen or eighteen. I'm eighteen; I've been here for a year now." She grinned proudly at this fact. "Gatherings have happened three times now; they're an annual thing. The rest of the time, everybody who shows up here is what we call a pick-up, cuz they get picked up off the streets, so to speak, usually in ones, twos or threes. They're the ones who missed a Gathering, or the ones who find out about the Project between Gatherings and ask to come, or the ones who need sanctuary and can't wait for the next Gathering."  
  
"Sanctuary? From what?" Sora said. Missy looked evasive.  
  
"Uhm, I don't think I'm supposed to tell you that yet. Command'll do that. Anyway, during the first Gathering, there was a Core group that Command really wanted to come. They said it was vital that all twelve of them came to the Project. The twelve people were these folks called the Digidestined, and for some reason we needed them to join us for the Project to work. I don't understand it, but I'm just Textile Team anyway. We don't hear a lot of the important stuff." She scowled at this, and Sora guessed it was a sore spot with her.  
  
"Anyhow, only half of the Core group agreed to come. I think there was a lot of fighting among them about that, and Command felt bad about that, but it had to happen."  
  
"I'm glad Command is so kind and caring," Sora said dryly. Who was this person or people called Command to screw around with peoples' lives like that? Missy didn't catch the sarcasm in her voice, though, and barreled on with her explanation.  
  
"Friendship, Sincerity, Kindness, Love-and-Sincerity, Reliability-and-Knowledge, and you, Love, all refused to come. Command dubbed you six the Left Behind, and the six that did come right off the bat, Courage, Reliability, Knowledge, Courage-and-Friendship, Light, and Hope, were the First Joined."  
  
"Command likes to name things, doesn't it," Sora commented. All the religious-sounding terms were starting to make her nervous. Missy shrugged.  
  
"*They* have a lot to keep track of. And they're not an 'it'! If they have a name for a particular group, it's easier to refer to it than if they have to list off a bunch of names. So, you're Love, and you're the first of the Second Joined! Command said you'd come eventually, when you realized the danger-"  
  
"Hold on!" Sora exclaimed, suddenly starting to panic. *Second Joined? I'm not staying here! I can't! Mimi...my mother...my life!* "I'm not an anything-Joined! I'm just here because...I don't know why I'm here! I was brought here! A Snimon attacked me..."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry..." Missy said softly, looking miserably disappointed. "I...I thought..." She took a deep breath, and sighed. Sora felt bad all of a sudden, like she'd let this girl down somehow.  
  
*That's crazy! I'm not letting this 'Command' drag me into some nutso scheme of theirs...if Tai and Joe want to stay here cut off from the world, that's their business, but as for me, no thank you!*  
  
"It's all right," the teenager said, looking a little more cheerful. "My grandma always did say, 'when you assume, you make an ass of u and me.' I didn't make you an ass, but *I* sure look pretty stupid right now..."  
  
"No, you don't," Sora said, now fully dressed except for the baffling fastener-less slit down the back of her jumpsuit. "You sound like a very smart young lady who just made an honest mistake. Now please, tell me how this thing works."  
  
Missy looked up to see Sora's predicament. "Oh! Yeah, that confused me the first time, too. Here, you press this thing here." She pointed at a metal stud in the back of the collar that Sora had noticed earlier, but had dismissed as decoration of some kind.  
  
Sora obliged, and sucked in her breath in a little gasp as the slit seemed to knit in on itself, becoming solid fabric. The jumpsuit also seemed to shrink slightly, fitting as if perfectly tailored to the shape of her body.  
  
"Holy crap! How do I get *out* of this thing?!" she exclaimed, starting to panic. Missy giggled.  
  
"You press the button again. See?" She pressed it for her, and the slit reopened as the suit seemed to relax around her. Sora blinked, then grinned, opening and closing the suit several times with the fascination of a little kid with a new toy.  
  
"That's amazing! Who invented this thing?"  
  
"My boss," Missy said, sounding pleased with the praise. "We're working on an improved version, but for now that's it. The fabric's designed to repair itself if it's torn or frayed, and it has a lightweight version of the fiber-armor that Defensive Technology Team created built into the weave. It wouldn't stop a bullet, but it holds out against most physical attacks."  
  
Sora blinked...repeatedly. "Wow. So, I'm wearing military technology?"  
  
"Project technology," Missy corrected. "But, more or less, yes."  
  
"Wow," Sora said again. Shaking her head in disbelief, she sat down on the edge of the tub and picked up her boots, putting them on. They seemed to be relatively ordinary footwear, if a little more comfortable than most boots she'd worn. Standing up, she shifted from foot to foot, testing them out. They would do nicely. She grinned.  
  
"This is just...wow. Hey, I'm starving. Is there anything to eat around here?"  
  
Missy nodded. "I'll get Joe."  
  
"What, is he going to make food pop out of the walls? Because, at this point, I wouldn't be that surprised. Impressed, yes; but surprised, no."  
  
The teenager giggled. "Naw, we haven't figured that much out yet. Food still 'pops up' the usual way; good old-fashioned cooking. There's a cafeteria run by Nutrition Team, and of course the Quonset, but you'll probably be eating with a couple of the First Joined."  
  
Sora grinned at the thought of seeing her old friends again, whatever weird titles Command had given them. "So, how soon do we eat?"  
  
"Pretty soon," Joe said, stepping through the doorway. Both women jumped, and Missy swore under her breath.  
  
"For someone called Reliability, you sure like to surprise people, don't you?" Missy griped. Joe pulled her ponytail in an older-brotherly way and grinned.  
  
"Anything for you ladies. Sorry to interrupt, Sora, but you have an invitation to breakfast, and the food's nearly ready."  
  
Sora grinned. "Ah, breakfast. You have no idea how good that word sounds right now. I think my stomach is collapsing in on itself."  
  
"I thought your digestive system might be ready for solid food again," Joe said knowledgably. Sora snorted.  
  
"Ready? I'll say it's ready. Let's go before I pass out from hunger!"  
  
"Bye, Sora!" Missy called as Joe steered his patient out the door. "Jya ne!"   
  
"See you around!" Sora called back, and they turned the corner out of sight.  
  
  
_________________________________________________________________________________  
  
  
*grins* Yes, Moonlight, I know you reviewed...and I thank you for it most effusively. You have a tendency to keep me going when nobody else will review me, lately...so I might as well dedicate this chapter to your unfailing evaluation, ne? Here, just to make it official...  
  
This chapter is hereby dedicated to Moonlight Star. M_~* Arigatou gozaimasu!  
  
Furthermore, just to let you all know, this happens to be the last post of my sixteenth year. The 19th of February is the illustrious day on which I shall turn seventeen. Here's to hoping for luck in the years to come! And thank you to all who review and support me!  
  
-bandit tanukionnanoko O_o 


	5. Blind Hope

~*~ Project Moment ~*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
**Chapter 4- Blind Hope**  
  
Sora was beginning to feel overwhelmed. She hadn't really thought about the size of the building she was in, but after going through multiple elevators, the majority of which didn't elevate anything, but seemed to move horizontally, and a series of glide-walks and escalators, she was getting a pretty good idea of the size of the complex, or at least of how small it was *not*. And it was not small in the least. In fact, it was huge.  
  
"How do you keep track of it all?" she exclaimed to Joe as they entered a sort of foyer, floored in glassy black stone that she could see her reflection in.  
  
"It took me a while," he admitted. "Of course, it helps that they put maps at intervals along the walls." Nodding at the wall, he pointed out just such a map, made of some kind of metal and hanging nearby. He led her toward a wall made of a transparent material that didn't quite look like glass; it was too clear, and it didn't reflect like the stone did. As they reached it, a door slid aside in it, and they passed through into warm sunlight. Touching the clear material as they passed it, Sora realized that it felt like the window in her tank.  
  
Then she was distracted, her attention caught by the area they'd entered. It reminded her of nothing so much as a picture she'd seen of a military complex, with lots of low tan structures, and a few larger ones in the same metal-and-glass scheme that she could now see that the bigger building they'd come out of was built in.  
  
The building they'd left was enormous; in fact, it seemed to be a sort of battlement. It extended in a multiple-sided wall around the entire little series of buildings they were strolling through, and almost the entire inside of it was covered in large 'glass' windows. She had been right; it didn't reflect light, and therefore she could see clearly into the rooms on the lower floors. It was several stories high, and she had no idea how thick a 'wall' it formed around the large 'courtyard' within.  
  
The courtyard itself was a surprise. While on first impression it had looked military, she saw now that children ran and played around several of the buildings, and that a woman was tending flowers in a window box nearby. There was even a cat sunning itself in a window, and a pair of dogs jumped after toys thrown by a girl who looked to be in her early teens. While they mostly wore the by-now-familiar blue-gray jumpsuits, this was no military establishment; at least, not one like she'd always assumed them to be.  
  
*'When you assume, you make an ass of u and me',* she quoted Missy mentally, smiling in spite of herself. *So it's not military as I know it. Then what is it? Listen for the answers and they'll come,* she reminded herself. It seemed that the inhabitants of this 'Project Headquarters' were not averse to talking animatedly about their lives, if Missy was any example. She'd figure this out, somehow.  
  
Joe was walking purposefully toward a cluster of small, one- and two-story buildings nearby, and she followed, taking in the sights as she went. Suddenly, a red plastic missile shot over her head, and she ducked. It landed a few feet behind her.  
  
The next thing she knew, both of the dogs she'd seen earlier were galumphing past. One was a German shepherd, and the other was some sort of enormous mutt that looked like it had golden retriever ancestry. Neither of them were any relation to Tinker Bell, and having them stampeding around her was not the most pleasant of experiences. In fact, it was a bit like being caught in a minor seismic disturbance.  
  
"DC! Jones!" a young female voice yelled in exasperation, and suddenly the dogs were being held away from her by the collars by the girl that Sora had seen throwing toys for them to fetch. The girl gave her a winning-if sheepish-smile. "Sorry about that. They're like a couple of young elephants, and they do love their Frisbee." Sora blinked; the girl spoke English, and with a faint British accent. "My name's Pam," she said, nodding her head in greeting so that her twin blond pigtails bounced. "These two dangerous beasts-" she patted the head of the yellow dog fondly, and it was clear she was joking, "are Jones and DC. DC just had pups," she added proudly, as DC panted and happily slobbered on her hands. "They're getting weaned now...they're the cutest little things ever! Oh, and my mum's on Medical Team, and my dad's on Textiles. You're new here, aren't you?" she said, as if suddenly remembering that her dogs were not everyone's favorite subject.  
  
Sora nodded, choosing not to introduce herself. She remembered too well Missy's overboard reaction to her name. Still, she needed some excuse to be here...what was the term Missy had used?  
  
"I'm a pick-up," she said, hoping she'd used it in the right way. Apparently she had, for Pam's face lit up with polite interest.  
  
"Really? You'll have to tell me about where you hail from, then," she said jovially. "You sound like a Japanese. Am I right?" Sora nodded again. "Well, that's all right then," she said with a satisfied air. "You'll have to drop by sometime and have Mum show you around. I've been here three years now, since I was ten, and I still don't know my way around the place. Oy, Andrew!" she called over her shoulder. One of the boys running about looked up.  
  
"What now?" he yelled back. He looked about nine years old.  
  
"She's a pick-up!" Pam shouted, jerking a thumb in the direction of Sora. "That's my little brother," she added for Sora's benefit, grinning. "He's a real nitwit."  
  
"Hey, welcome aboard!" one of the older boys in the group yelled. Sora grinned and waved. There was a very community feeling to this place, however daunting the technology and the as-yet-faceless 'Command' might be. Before she could talk more, Joe beckoned over his shoulder to her; he'd been having a conversation with someone at the door of one of the buildings.  
  
"Hey, Sora, talk later! Your breakfast's getting cold!"  
  
The name 'Sora' set off a sudden buzz of excitement among the children, and Pam turned to look at her with wide brown eyes. Sora cringed and ducked into the house, turning as soon as she'd closed the door to confront Joe.  
  
"Joe! Why is it that every time anybody here hears my name, they go nuts-" her voice stopped mid-gripe as she spotted the person standing by the door, with an amused look on her face.  
  
"It's nice to see you, too," Kari said, smiling at Sora's shocked expression.  
  
"Kari? Oh my Lord, Kari!" Sora ran forward and wrapped the younger woman in a tight hug, grinning fiercely into her hair. "I can't believe it's really you!" Stepping back and holding her friend at arms' length, she let out a hoot. "You're older! Good grief, you're a real grown-up now, aren't you? The last time I saw you, you were, what? Nineteen? Oh, you look great! How are you?"  
  
"I'm fine," Kari said solemnly, her eyes sparkling. "How are you?" The sparkle condensed into tears, and she reached up to wipe them away on her sleeve. "Oh, you have no idea how good it is to *see* you!" she exclaimed suddenly, and threw herself back into her surrogate big sister's arms.  
  
Joe stood awkwardly a few feet away, sweatdropping and trying to suppress comments about how emotional girls could be. He had decided a long time ago that it was better to stay out of the way when they got like this.  
  
Once they'd finished their greetings, the girls began to talk animatedly, heading into the kitchen. The inside of the plain building was furnished like any of a dozen apartments Sora had been in, but the occasional knickknack here or there-Kari's beloved digital camera; a photo of a much younger Tai and Kari, hanging on the fridge; a framed painting on the wall-added a touch of familiarity that made Sora blink away a few tears of her own before her attention was caught by a delicious smell.  
  
A plate of pancakes and eggs was set out on the table. Sora started toward them, but as she was about to reach them, a voice rang out from the next room.  
  
"Sora? Is that you? Get in here and say hello already!"  
  
"TK?" Sora said, with a disbelieving expression, and hurried through the door without waiting for a reaction from Kari or Joe. The room turned out to be a small living room, and the next in a continually lengthening string of familiar faces was seated on the sofa, facing her.  
  
TK stood up as she came in, taking a few steps forward. "Sora?" A huge grin was spread across his face, but he didn't come any closer. He seemed to be waiting for something.  
  
The something came through the door behind Sora a moment later. Kari and Joe moved to flank her, both looking...worried, somehow. Nervous.  
  
"She's over by the door, TK," Kari said gently. Joe sighed.  
  
"I wish you'd waited for us to tell you first," he said in a defeated tone. Sora blinked.  
  
*Tell me...what?* Suddenly, Joe's words, Kari's directions, and TK's confusion as to where she was, all came together in her mind with a shock like being doused with a bucket of cold water.  
  
"TK. You're..." she stammered.  
  
"Charming? Delightful? A sight for sore eyes?" he teased, coming over with careful but confident steps now that he'd had his signal from Kari. At this distance, Sora could see that his once clear blue eyes were clouded.  
  
"Blind..." Sora said softly.  
  
"Oh, that," he said, his smile fading. "I'm always forgetting that one."  
  
He was within arms' reach now, but Sora was suddenly shy and unsure of what to do. *How do you greet someone in a situation like...this?* Before she could decide, fortunately, TK reached out and wrapped her in a tight hug.  
  
"I can't say it's good to see you again," he quipped, his smile ironic now, but back in place, "but it's great to have you here." She returned the hug, her vision blurring slightly with tears.  
  
"How... When..."  
  
"We'd better sit down," TK said, and led her over to the couch. She blinked; he literally knew his way around the place blindfolded. Sitting down next to her, as Kari and Joe joined them on either side, he took her hands as if *she* were the one in need of comfort. *Which is, frankly, not far off, now that I think about it... He seems just fine.*  
  
"I had an...accident, on a mission with Tai and two other people," TK said, his voice somber. "We were attacked by a group of the enemy, and while we were battling them, they managed to blow up our vehicle. I was caught in the blast, along with one of the others. She has permanent scarring; she was closer than me. I was caught in the head by a piece of shrapnel, and it did a number on my optical nerves, according to Mr. MD here," and he gestured to Joe. "Tai got the two of us back to base okay, and we both pulled through, but it was touch and go with Yuki for a while." He sighed. "That was about a year and a half ago, and I've had plenty of time to learn new ways of getting around. Kari's been a real angel, right from the start."  
  
Kari blushed. "I try," she said modestly. Joe grinned.  
  
"Yeah, she took it really well, too."  
  
She shot a Look at him. "Don't be sarcastic, Joe. It doesn't become you." She turned to Sora with a slightly amused look. "I nearly had a litter of kittens," she said frankly. "I screamed at Tai until my lungs gave. Mostly stuff like 'how could you let this happen, his life will be ruined', you get the idea. I spent hours either with TK at the hospital wing or locked in my room. I was worse than him, and he's the one it happened to." She grinned at the memory. "Once I was hoarse and miserable enough to listen to a few ideas from Joe and the rest of Medical Team, I decided I might as well try and help out."  
  
"Yeah, so she moved in with him to play nurse twenty-four seven," Joe said helpfully. Both younger adults turned to glare at him, and he raised his hands defensively. "Well, you did," he protested.  
  
"You're not helping your situation any, Dr. Kido," Sora said dryly. Joe went red and shut up, but TK laughed.  
  
"Actually, he's pretty close to the mark. You wouldn't believe what a blessing it was to have her here to take care of me those first few months. Davis was furious, of course." The smug expression on his face told Sora very quickly that he had no problems with that state of affairs. "You know, I could probably take care of myself almost completely by now, thanks to Kari's ideas on how to do stuff using my other senses."  
  
"But we've gotten pretty comfortable with each other, so we figure, why bother moving out again when I've just really gotten settled in?" Kari said with a little smile. Sora pretended to look shocked.  
  
"Kari! You're the last person I'd expect to see living in sin..." This time it was TK and Kari's turn to blush.  
  
"We don't...I mean...we…" TK stammered. Sora laughed.   
  
"I was teasing, you guys. I should have known you couldn't take a joke."  
  
"I thought it was funny," Joe hastened to add, earning another pair of Looks.  
  
There was an awkward pause, but TK was quick to forgive, as usual, and in a hurry to get on with finishing his story. "So we do all right together. I'm not totally useless, anyway. I help out at Textiles workshop sorting types, which I can do really well by feel, and I'm visiting nurse at Joe's wing."  
  
"That means he goes and horses around with the kids-gently-and reads to the invalids," Kari said, smiling. Sora blinked.  
  
"Reads? But..."  
  
"It's called Braille, and you'd be surprised how quickly I picked it up with all that free time on my hands," TK said, with a satisfied tone to his voice. Sora gave him a disbelieving look.  
  
"TK, if anyone deserves the Crest of Hope, it's you."  
  
"Thanks," he said with a grin, giving her another hug. "Right now, I'm hoping that you'll leave me a few of those pancakes. They smell great."  
  
"Help yourself," Sora said. "There's enough for four people at least."  
  
"As it should be," Joe said, standing up. "I haven't had breakfast yet, either."  
  
All four young adults headed for the kitchen to dig in, and to TK's credit, he made it into the kitchen with more ease than Sora, and put away his share and part of everybody else's to boot. Between him and Sora, who literally hadn't eaten in days, it turned out that Kari had to make up another batch for there to be enough for herself and Joe, after all...  
  
  
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Arigatou gozaimasu to everyone who is reviewing me of late! This fic is my baby (hey, aren't they all? M_~* But this one is more so than most) and I'm happy as a cat by a heat source to see it getting so much attention. I hope you all will continue to enjoy it! The next chapter should be coming up sometime in the next few days. -Bandit O_o 


	6. Reunions

~*~Project Moment~*~  
  
A Digimon Fanfic by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 5- Reunions*~  
  
  
Leaving the house a good hour and a half of companionable eating and talking later, Sora realized that she's forgotten TK's handicap for most of the conversation. He'd just seemed like himself.  
  
*It's not really a handicap at all,* she thought to herself, surprised by the thought, but also sure of its truth. *He's handling it just fine, and so is Kari. They're going to be all right. Still, I would have liked to see Kari dressing Tai down about that accident. Now there's something I never thought I'd hear tell of...*  
  
Her amusement faded, the thought of Tai sobering her up again very quickly. *I wonder when I'm going to get a chance to talk to him,* she thought, not sure whether to be eager for the chance, or afraid of its coming. Their last talk had not been a pleasant one, and she had no wish to repeat the performance...was he still mad at her?  
  
"Have you thought about where you're going to sleep?" Joe said, providing a welcome distraction from her suddenly less-than-pleasant thoughts. Sora frowned.  
  
"Not really...are there guest rooms here?"  
  
"Well, there are," Joe said reluctantly, "but they're not very well situated with respect to my ward, and I want you to be nearby, just in case. Let's see, you could sleep at the ward-"  
  
"No!" Sora interrupted emphatically. "I am not sleeping among the smells of antiseptic and sick people, thank you very much. I'm sick of hazelnuts already."  
  
Joe grinned. "I thought you'd say that. Hm...I'd offer you my guest room, but unfortunately, I don't have one." He shrugged eloquently. "I live in the complex, and there's not much space. I'm guessing you don't want to stay with a stranger?"  
  
Sora shook her head, hard. Joe nodded. "I thought you'd say that, too. Well, the only folks you know here with living quarters near the ward are Davis and..." He paused, and Sora looked at him confusedly. They had almost reached the ward, from the maps posted on the walls around them.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Ypblyntintstd," Joe mumbled, not meeting her eyes. Sora blinked.  
  
"What? Speak up."  
  
"You're probably not interested," Joe said sheepishly.  
  
"Why? Who is it?" Sora said, aware that her questions were taking on a who-what-when-where-why format, but curious all the same.  
  
"It's-"  
  
"Sora?"  
  
The surprised, apprehensive voice came from the doorway of the ward. Sora looked up, her stomach knotting itself into a nervous lump.  
  
"Tai..." she said softly, determined to be aloof, to be cool, to not break down...  
  
And then she looked into those oh-so-familiar, warm brown eyes, and her tight stomach melted.  
  
*To hell with that,* she thought, and ran forward. He met her halfway, picking her up and swinging her around, both of them laughing and crying. She pulled him into a tight hug almost before he'd set her down, and they stood clinging to each other in the middle of the hallway, the people around them forgotten.  
  
"Oh, God, Sora, I am so sorry," Tai said, resting his forehead against hers. "Are you okay? How did...I mean...you look...oh, I missed you so much!"  
  
"I'm sorry too," she said, smiling through her tears. "And I bet I missed you more. I've been hitting myself repeatedly ever since you left, about how I was such a selfish brat..."  
  
"You, a brat? I'm the one who-"  
  
"Shh," she said, putting a finger over his lips to silence him as she looked solemnly into his eyes. "Don't go through the list, please. I've gone over it too many times on my own. Apology accepted."  
  
"Right," he murmured, sheepish. That didn't last long, though. "God, you're a sight for sore eyes!" he exclaimed suddenly, a grin lighting his face again as he pulled her into another hug. "Do you know, I don't think a day out of three years went by that I didn't think about you?"  
  
Sora drew back to look at him, surprised. "Me, too..." she whispered, tears beginning to well up in her eyes again...but they were tears of relief. *It's going to be okay...*  
  
The moment caught and held, and the two of them stood just drinking the sight of each other in, with the almost-ache of happiness and relief tugging at their hearts. They could have stayed that way indefinitely, but unfortunately-or perhaps fortunately-someone there had some sense.  
  
"Well, I'm glad to see you two are made up," Joe said agreeably, breaking the spell and making both of them whirl and glare fiercely at him. "It makes it a lot easier for me to finish my conversation with Sora," he continued, ignoring both death-glares with practiced ease. "As I was saying, there are two options you have that fit all of your requests. You can either stay with Davis or with Tai."  
  
Sora and Tai looked at each other, and looked back at Joe.  
  
"Tai," Sora said positively.  
  
"Me," Tai said at the same time. Sora gave him a shove, and he grinned.  
  
"My decision, remember?" she said, teasingly.  
  
"And was there any doubt?" he teased back. Sora shrugged.  
  
"Not really," she said. "You may be annoying, but Davis would drive me insane."  
  
"Oh, so I'm the lesser of two evils?" Tai said, with a mock-insulted look.  
  
"No, you're the greater of two goggle-heads," Sora shot back with a grin.  
  
Tai opened his mouth to reply, but before he could say anything, a head poked out of the infirmary door.  
  
"I see the terrible twosome are on good terms again," Izzy dryly remarked. "It's about time you showed..."  
  
That was as far as he got before Sora managed to disengage herself from Tai and go on the offensive.  
  
"Izzy!" she cried happily, running over and catching him in a hug that made his eyes bug out.  
  
"...Up!" he gasped, trying to escape and failing miserably. "Sora, I can't breathe!"  
  
Sora blinked and stepped back, letting go of the suffocating techie. "Oh, sorry...is that better?"  
  
"Much better," he said, raking a hand through his nest of hair to 'fix' it. "Sheesh, I come by to see if my friend's awake yet, and the genuine article nearly strangles me. Honestly, though, I *am* glad you're here. Now I won't have to put up with Tai coming over to moan at me about you while I'm trying to program." He rolled his eyes. "It never fails; he always has an attack of pathos right when I'm supposed to be working on something important."  
  
Sora snorted. "Wow, Izzy, you really do care."  
  
"He's just being difficult," Tai said helpfully from behind her. "If you don't pay any attention to him, he'll usually go away."  
  
"A pity that that strategy doesn't work with you, Tai," Izzy said wryly, "or I'd have gotten promoted by now."  
  
"Oh, quit being a little horror and say hello properly," Joe said.  
  
"Hardly little anymore," Tai said, gesturing toward Izzy; he was indeed considerably taller than he had once been, and had lost a lot of the 'baby fat' he'd kept into his teens in the process.  
  
"Still shorter than me, though," Sora said smugly.  
  
"You guys," Joe complained. "You know what I meant." Izzy shrugged, and allowed his face to break into a smile.  
  
"Sorry. It really is good to see you, Sora," he said. She grinned and hugged him again, more gently this time, and this time he hugged back.  
  
After she stepped back again, Joe spoke up.  
  
"You might want to go get settled in," he suggested. "I'm guessing that at least three of us are going to want to take you on a tour of the place, and you'll be dearly wishing for a place to flop by the time that's through with."  
  
Sora shrugged. "Sounds good," she admitted, and offered her arm to Tai. "Shall we?"  
  
"We shall," Tai said agreeably. "Bye, Izzy."  
  
"See you later," Izzy replied as the two of them headed off around the corner. After they were well out of earshot, he turned to Joe. "You know and I know that there is a perfectly good set of guest rooms not five minutes from the ward," he said dryly. "Somebody here's been meddling in things better left un-meddled-in, and it hasn't been me."  
  
Joe blinked at him, looking insulted. "I prefer to call it 'constructive manipulation'," he said firmly. "Meddling sounds so...amoral. And who says they're better left alone? He's not arguing, and what she doesn't know won't hurt her. In the meantime, this will give them a chance to catch up on things, and him more time to convince her to stay. See? Everybody's happy."  
  
"Maybe it's because you're a medical type that you've gotten so...maternal," Izzy said after a moment of contemplating this bit of Kido-logic. Without giving Joe a chance to puzzle this out and throw the nearest mobile object at his head, he ducked back into the ward and shut the door, heading back through it in the direction of his office.  
  
__________________________________  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 6: Blood, Sweat and Tears  
  
(AN) Well, folks, you asked for Taiora...and I always deliver! There's a bunch more coming up, too, so don't tune out anytime soon. M_~*  
  
Thanks to everyone who's reviewing me! Also, I'd like to say that I reserve the right to write whatever aijou (couples) I like, but that I will never outright bash any aijou without provocation from one of its acolytes. (AKA if a Sorato starts snotting off to me about Ep. 50, I will freely start listing reasons why Sora and Matt would kill each other within six months of marriage. M_m* )  
  
Like the teaser says, Chapter 6 is coming up, so keep an eye out for it! Love you all! -Bandit O_o 


	7. Blood, Sweat and Tears

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 6- Blood, Sweat and Tears*~  
  
Tai and Sora had reached Tai's 'apartment'. Joe hadn't been kidding; the walk was barely three minutes, and they were doing anything but hurrying. Strolling up to the door, sharing anecdotes from their time apart and laughing like little kids, they stopped walking-but not talking-for Tai to get out his key.  
  
"Then, when he finally got up the nerve to ask her out, she was so surprised she dropped her books all over the floor! And when they went to pick them up, it was at the same time, and they cracked heads! Cody was mortified..."  
  
"I feel sorry for the poor guy. Pretty violent relationship, if you ask me," Tai said, sliding a plastic card through a slot by the door. It slid open, and he stepped inside. Sora blinked at the card, and he grinned. "They're much lighter than metal keys. In fact, sometimes a little too light." She looked at him, confused, and he elaborated. "It blew out of my hand onto the roof of one of the sub-buildings once, when I was standing on a balcony, and I couldn't get in here for three hours. I had to wait at Kari's until they got a crane out to retrieve it."  
  
Sora giggled and stepped inside. The apartment was typically bachelor-messy, but not too bad; compared to the nest of old song papers and scattered clothes that Mimi liked to very accurately compare Matt's old apartment to, it was practically the Hilton. It was made up of a kitchenette, a small living room, and a little hallway with two doors on the side away from the entrance, probably leading to bedroom and bath. A small closet stood open at the end of the hallway.  
  
"Um...where do I sleep?" Sora said awkwardly. *No way does Joe expect me to...you know... Does he?*  
  
Tai strode over to the sofa and took the cushions off of it. "It's a hide-a-bed. Ah, the joys of living in such a high-tech community..."  
  
Sora grinned, as much in relief as at Tai's joke. "I'm surprised. I was expecting you to make a bunk pop out of the wall." *Okay, so that was a lie...but he definitely does not need to know what I really was thinking!*  
  
Fortunately, Tai didn't seem to have noticed her earlier nervousness. He was off and running again, this time over to the closet. "You can put your stuff in here...oh, wait, I don't suppose you have much stuff with you, do you..." He looked embarrassed, and Sora tried to help.  
  
"Well, there are my clothes; I can put those in there when I get them back."  
  
"Uh...huh. Your clothes." Tai looked even more embarrassed, and Sora blinked.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well...hm. You see, there's a little...problem...with your clothes."  
  
Sora looked at him in alarm. "What is it? That was my favorite sweater; it had better not be ruined..."  
  
"Um..." Tai hemmed for a minute. "Well, I guess I could show them to you...I was going to take you by the ward anyway to meet TK and Kari."  
  
"Well, I'm settled in..." Sora laughed. "So sure, let's go. I presume that you three are planning to take me on that tour Joe mentioned?"  
  
"Just of the fun places," Tai said with a grin.  
  
"You're telling me that you all have time for fun between inventing life-saving devices, going on 'missions', and making things pop out of the walls?"  
  
"Have you seen *anything* pop out of a wall yet, Sora Takenouchi, or are you just trying to get our collective goat?" Tai said with a mock frown. Sora shrugged.  
  
"Not really. I just have this mental picture of technology as object-yielding walls. Don't ask me why."  
  
"Why should I ask what I know the answer to? You're crazy."  
  
"Hey!" Sora grabbed one of the couch cushions from the floor and lammed him over the head with it, grinning.  
  
"Ow!" Tai yelped, trying to fend her off. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, the rest of us are just as nutty as you are! Welcome to the club! Ow!"  
  
Sora had gotten him over the head again. "I'll show you 'insane'! Eat batting, Puffhead!"  
  
"Okay, that's it! No one insults the hair!" Tai scooped up the other cushion and went into the fray with a will. If the pillows had been down-filled, it would have snowed feathers. As it was, the air was filled with laughter and shouts of 'ow!' and 'take that!'  
  
*whamwhamwham!*  
  
Sora and Tai both froze mid-swing; someone was hammering on the wall from the next room over.  
  
"Tai, I don't care if she looks like Nicole Kidman," a voice came from the next apartment down, muffled by the wall. "Either keep it to a dull roar, or I'm going to call security!"  
  
Tai and Sora exchanged annoyed glances. "My neighbor," Tai said in an undertone. "He's up late a lot programming, and he's really cranky most of the time. Okay, okay, we were just leaving anyway!" This was directed in a raised tone to the unseen neighbor. Tai paused, and then added with a grin, "And just for the record, she looks more like that cheerleader chick from 'The Replacements'!"  
  
Sora's pillow slammed him in the back of the head. "Baka!"  
  
"It was a compliment!"  
  
A snort of laughter came from the unseen neighbor. "Taichi, you are one lucky SOB...now pipe down!!!"  
  
Laughing, Tai fled the apartment as Sora menacingly raised her pillow. Dropping her weapon, she chased him off down the hallway.  
  
"Tai, wait for me! I don't know my way around here! Tai!!"  
  
She caught up to him as they reached the ward. He was leaning casually against the wall, looking smug.  
  
"'Bout time you got here."  
  
"You left me!" Sora said indignantly, gasping with exertion and fury. "I could have gotten lost forever in this maze of a building!"  
  
"Don't worry, Sora. If you get lost, just make some food pop out of the walls. Want to see your clothes?" Tai turned and walked into the ward.  
  
"Ohhh, you..."  
  
Following him with murder on her mind, Sora stalked up behind him. He was opening a cupboard and getting out a largish, red plastic box, about a foot and a half square. Sora blinked at the sight of a biohazard symbol on the lid. Setting it down on the counter, Tai opened it and turned it for her to see. All traces of fun were suddenly gone from his face.  
  
Sora had a sudden, sick premonition that she didn't want to see what was in that box...but she had already gone this far. Leaning forward, she peered into it.  
  
The gorge rose in her throat. These were not her clothes. They couldn't be her clothes! This was a heap of torn cloth, stained garishly red, as if painted...but she recognized the snowflake pattern on a patch of sleeve that was still relatively clean, and the hole at the corner of one of the pockets of the pants that she'd been meaning to have fixed. They were her clothes, all right, but ripped beyond repair, and saturated in blood that lay in drops on the inside of the sealed plastic bag that held them.  
  
Sora stared at them in disbelief. There was a huge rip, right down the front of the sweater, and another tear had half-severed one sleeve. Reaching down to pull up her left sleeve, Sora looked closely at her skin for the first time, and saw a fine white line of scar tissue running cleanly across her lower arm, parallel to the slash in the sweater sleeve. It was so thin that she wouldn't have noticed it for a while on her own. Swallowing hard, she pulled her sleeve down again to cover the telltale scar, and turned to face Tai.  
  
"I was dying, wasn't I." It wasn't a question. Tai looked conflicted for a moment, but nodded. Sora swallowed. "That's why I was brought here. This was the only place that could save me."  
  
"That's about the size of it," Tai said, with a sigh.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"What?" he said, confused.  
  
"Why was I so important that I couldn't be allowed to die? Why did I just happen to be brought into Joe's ward, and not somebody else's? How did your machines manage to save someone who had lost that much blood?" She gestured at the gruesome contents of the bag. "And for that matter, why does everyone here react like I'm King Arthur's ghost come back from the grave whenever they hear my name?!"  
  
Tai reached out to her, trying to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she twisted away.  
  
"Sora-"  
  
"If you're trying to be nice, I don't need babying. I'm a grownup now, Taichi."  
  
"You're afraid, and I don't blame you, but-"  
  
"Of course I'm afraid!" Sora exploded. "I just found out that I almost died! As far as my experience goes, it's not the greatest thing to hear! You want me to admit I'm scared? Fine! I'm terrified! I'm scared out of my freaking mind! My hair is standing up and my hands are shaking like leaves! Happy?!"  
  
"Sora, you're panicking," Tai said with infuriating calmness. "You need to take a few deep breaths and calm down before you do anything." Sora rankled.   
  
*How can he just stand there and talk like this is no big deal? I almost died!*  
  
"Calm down?! What do you mean, calm down?! I have every right to panic!"  
  
"But you won't do yourself any good if you do. You'll just make yourself sick and exhausted. Trust me, Sora," Tai said, putting a hand on her arm. It closed over the place where her scar was, and she flinched visibly. "I know how you feel."  
  
"How can you possibly know how I feel?!" Sora yelled, knowing she was out of control and not caring. How dare he be so cool and agreeable when she'd just found out something like this?! "You've never had this happen to you! How dare you stand there lecturing me? You've never had a brush with death!"  
  
Tai's eyes were solemn. "Are you sure about that?"  
  
Sora stared at him, and her balloon of anger and fear deflated with the puncture of shock. "What?"  
  
"I'll tell you later. Look, Sora, I really do know how scary this is...but you have to remember, you're not alone. You've got Joe and Izzy, and TK and Kari, and even Davis. And me." He gently squeezed her arm. "Always me."  
  
Tears filled Sora's eyes, and she let them spill over. It was a relief to cry, to let it all out. As the tears opened the door, the memories of terror and agony from back in the garage finally hit her with an impact like a sledgehammer, and she squeezed her eyes shut, crying harder.  
  
A pair of strong arms pulled her into a warm hug, and she clung to Tai, letting her tears soak his shoulder. The memories washed over her like waves, but Tai was a rock to hold on to, and they didn't-couldn't-wash her away. Slowly, the tears subsided to hiccupping sobs, and she relaxed in his arms, sighing the deep sigh of relief.  
  
"There. That feels better, doesn't it," Tai said gently.  
  
"You sound like Joe," Sora said with a weak smile, pulling away far enough to look up at him. Tai grinned, and tilted her chin up with one hand. "I must look terrible," Sora said with a sniff, blinking away surplus tears.  
  
"Nah," Tai said, giving her a long, tender look. "You look beautiful..."  
  
"Hey, you guys! We're here! Are you going to open the door already, or what?"  
  
"TK," Tai said, rolling his eyes, and let go of her to close the box and put it away before going to the door of the ward. Sora grabbed a few tissues and dried her face, and then followed him.  
  
TK and Kari were at the door, grinning.  
  
"Took you long enough," Kari said as Sora came into view. "Just what were you two doing in there, anyway?"  
  
"None of your business," Tai said amiably, joining them in the corridor with Sora not far behind. "Let's blow this Popsicle stand; the young lady needs to be shown around, remember?"  
  
"Of course," TK said graciously, taking Kari's arm. Tai offered Sora his arm, too, and she laughed and took it.  
  
"Shall we go forth and mingle with the rabble, then?" Kari said with an amateurish attempt at a British accent.  
  
"We shall," Sora said, and they headed out.  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 7: Bomb the Town  
  
(AN) Once again, mucho gracias to all those who feed me with those yummy ego-boosting morsels known as reviews! M_~* Minna arigatouuuuu!! Keep up the good work on your end of the bargain, and I'll keep it up on mine! *~M_M~*  
  
Also, I think it's time I acknowledged another dear reviewer who keeps me going through thick and thin, fantastic and mediocre...  
  
  
"This chapter of Project: Moment is hereby dedicated to Ralph Wiggum. Arigatou gozaimasu!"  
  
  
There ya go, Ralph! Ask and you shall receive...especially if you earned it. M_~*  
  
Action! Suspense! Laffs! And a double shot of romance! Chapter 7 is coming up soon... -Bandit O_o 


	8. Bomb the Town

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 7- Bomb the Town*~  
  
"So, we're hitting all the fun spots, right?"  
  
"Right," Tai answered TK. The younger man grinned.  
  
"Sounds like a kick. Where first?"  
  
Kari cleared her throat. "How about the Arena?"  
  
"Aw, Kari," TK complained good-naturedly. "You know I can't aim those things."  
  
"Oh, shove off, TK," Tai said with a grin. "You and I both know you're the terror of the Arena. The management needs a separate secretary to file all of the requests to disable the mines whenever Takaishi Takeru is playing, just to even the field."  
  
"Fond friend. All right, fine. The Arena it is."  
  
"All right!" Tai and Kari both jubilated, and they took off down the hallway, dragging their respective 'partners' behind them. Sora yelped, trying to get her feet back under herself.  
  
"Hold on a minute! What's the 'Arena'?"  
  
"You'll see," Tai said cheerfully over his shoulder. Any more questions were ignored as she was propelled out of the building and through the courtyard 'village' toward a particularly strange-looking building, surrounded by a scattering of people walking into and out of it.  
  
To say that the building didn't match the other ones around it would be a gross understatement. Large, square, and painted black from the foundation to the roof, two stories high, it had no windows whatsoever. It did, however, have large double doors at the front, below a neon sign that read THE ARENA in three-foot-tall, violently green letters. Halfway up, at about the place where the junction between first and second floors would be on a normal building, was an enormous digital clock, counting down, that presently read 00:06:35. The whole effect was made even more strange as Sora watched a trio of teenagers go inside. What looked like smoke billowed from the door as it opened, and colored light shone from the depths of the insides.  
  
"Um, Tai?" she said nervously, tugging at his arm as he continued to forge ahead. "Why are we going into a place that looks like a cross between a disco and the mouth of hell?"  
  
Both Kamiyas burst out laughing, and Sora blinked.  
  
"What? What's so funny?"  
  
Instead of answering, the other three went inside, dragging Sora in their wake. This was as eloquent as any answer; Sora's jaw dropped as she looked around.  
  
"Whoa...."  
  
The Arena was an arena, all right. In fact, it was (from the bits of it she could make out) the biggest laser tag arena she had ever seen. The foursome stood in a side room, a sort of entrance hall. The air was misted with smoke. Racks on the walls to their left and right held rows and rows of gun-and-harness sets, and the opposite wall from the way they'd come in had a huge door set into it, and a waiting queue of metal railings leading up to it. The queue was about half full of people, watching a clock over the closed door that seemed to be set in sync with the one outside. It now read 00:05:12, and the numbers were steadily ticking down.  
  
On either side of the door were twin columns of TV monitors, showing scenes that were presumably being relayed by cameras in the arena itself. Sora allowed herself to be steered over to the ammo racks, watching the screens. Presently, a boy in a harness that blinked green from rows of tiny light bulbs was chasing a girl in yellow down a smoke-filled 'alley', taking potshots at her heels.  
  
"This is amazing...Tai, I love laser tag!"  
  
He grinned. "I know. Here, grab a harness." TK and Kari were already strapping themselves into the harnesses, which consisted of chest plates that displayed scoring and hit-miss ratios, a hip holster and gun, shoulder guards, and back plates, all studded with tiny, unlit light bulbs and held together with buckles and straps. TK seemed familiar with the setup; he buckled his own harness on without any trouble.  
  
"Does it matter which one I pick?" Sora said uncertainly. "How do they do teams?"  
  
"That varies from game to game. Right now, they're playing a team-vs.-team-style game. The teams are set; green vs. yellow. Our game, the one coming up in..." He checked the timer. "...three minutes and fifty seconds, is repeat-randomizer-style. That means that every few minutes, the team affiliation is going to change. You lose points for getting hit and for shooting team members, so it can get tricky. Scoring is personal; it's pretty much every man for himself, since the teams toggle so much. We've got three minutes thirty-two seconds, so you might want to get strapped in and activated."  
  
He was already in his harness, and doing something with the chest plate as he talked. Sora blinked, then grabbed the nearest harness and strapped it on. She had been mountain climbing before, and you had to wear a harness for that. This couldn't be that different, right?  
  
Wrong. She was hopelessly tangled in ten seconds flat. Tai glanced over from fiddling with his own harness and laughed. "Here, let me get that." He slipped it off over her head, unknotted it and put it back on, tightening the straps to fit her shape. "Is that okay?"  
  
"It's fine. Thanks," she said sheepishly.  
  
"Want help signing in?"  
  
"Signing in?" Sora echoed blankly. Tai pointed to the screen on his chest plate-it now read 'dragonfire91' in bold letters across the top.  
  
"I'll help you get a signature chip later, but for now you can do a temporary name. Signature chips keep track of your win-loss and personal records. You put them in here." He gestured to a slot. "For now, though...what name do you want?"  
  
"Um...Phoenix Five?" Sora said, quoting her Email address, minus the '@mechanet.com'.  
  
"Right." Tai did something with a few buttons at the bottom corner of the plate, and a second later 'phoenix5' blinked into existence at the top of her screen. "There you go. Now let's go catch up to TK and Kari."  
  
They joined the other two at the back of the line. TK's screen read 'lookoutbelow' and Kari's read 'angel_maiden'. Sora frowned.  
  
"'Look out below'?"  
  
"You'll catch on later," TK said with a grin.  
  
"Especially if he's not on your team," Kari added dryly.  
  
The buzzer above them went off in a pitch that made Sora wince, and there was a murmur of excitement through the crowd of players. There must have been fifty people waiting to play, which told Sora a little about the size of the arena. A tinny recorded voice boomed through the room.  
  
"Welcome to the Arena. Please wait while the previous game's players exit the arena. The next game will begin in one minute. It will be played in repeat-randomizer style, red vs. green vs. yellow vs. orange. You have one minute to scatter before the harnesses activate teams. Shooting teammates will deduct from your score. Collective team scoring is irrelevant; this is personal competition. Good luck, and play safely. May the best player win!"  
  
A canned fanfare rang through the room, and the doors opened to a blare of rock music from within the arena.  
  
"Woooohooo!"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
"Let's par-tay!"  
  
With shouts and war cries, the waiting players poured into the arena. Sora grabbed Tai's arm, trying not to be lost in the general uproar.  
  
"Tai, what do I do now?!" she cried over the music as they were jostled from side to side.  
  
"We scatter!" Tai said with a grin over his shoulder. "Follow me!"  
  
The arena seemed to be a maze of tunnels, hallways and catwalks, filled with smoke and colored spotlights. Sora just ran at Tai's heels, catching the occasional glimpse of other players making for favorite hiding places as they passed. After a few seconds, Tai ducked into a hallway that was made up of a chain of tiny, square rooms, all the same size, with archways in two walls of each to allow passage. He pulled Sora in with him, just as several sets of feet thundered by in an adjacent hallway.  
  
"Now we wait," Tai whispered. "In a few seconds, the computer is going to trigger teams, which means that our harnesses will light up in one of four colors. At the same time, our guns will unfreeze, so that we can shoot. If we're the same, we can stick together. If we're different, run like hell, because I'm trying to work my way up the competition ladder and I need points however I can get them."  
  
Sora rolled her eyes. "Oh, thanks a lot."  
  
"Hey, just making conversation. So, that's your gun. You aim it like a regular gun; you shoot it with that trigger there. You get points for hitting people. Try to avoid being hit; it docks points from your score. You can go into the negatives, and that's a bad thing. When you're hit, your gun freezes and won't shoot for five seconds. That's also a bad thing."  
  
"That's not very long..."  
  
"You'd be surprised."  
  
A low hum sounded from their harnesses, and Sora looked down to see the lights blinking in rainbow colors on both of them. She braced herself to run, in case Tai decided to make good on his words. The blinking slowed, slowed...  
  
Stopped.  
  
They were both orange.  
  
Sora let out a comical sigh of relief, and Tai blinked at her.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I was hoping you would let me tag along for a while. Just so I don't get totally slaughtered."  
  
"You'll do fine. Now come on, the game's just getting started. I hope you catch on by the next team scramble, because I doubt we'll end up on the same team twice in a row."  
  
At that moment, they heard footsteps coming down the corridor, and froze. Tai pulled his gun from his holster and waited, silent, for the walker to come into view. Sora watched him and copied his movements, drawing her own gun and figuring out how to hold it, then aiming as well.  
  
A figure in yellow wandered into view, obviously not expecting ambush. Tai and Sora let loose with a hail of fire, making the person drop their gun in surprise, swearing loudly. Tai let off a few more shots, and then took off down the corridor.  
  
"Hey! Where are you going?!" Sora yelled, and followed. Tai slowed for her to catch up, but didn't stop. "We had that guy cornered! Why did you-"  
  
At that moment, a bevy of players in yellow rounded the corner, drawn by their teammate's loud yells.  
  
"That's why," Tai said, running faster. "Anyone shouting that loud was bound to attract trouble. Let's get out of here!"  
  
Sora had no problem with that plan of action. They rounded a few corners and climbed a ramp onto a raised platform, looking around. From their vantage point, they could see the maze of open-topped corridors below; they had definitely lost their pursuers.  
  
Tai spotted a few green lights bobbing along below them, several halls away, and started taking snipes at them. Sora followed suit, and smugly watched her scoring counter rise.  
  
Suddenly, the rising stopped. Sora frowned and pressed her trigger.  
  
It clicked.  
  
At that moment, she realized that her score was beginning to fall. Also, her harness was making canned exploding sounds.  
  
"Um, Tai? I think somebody's shooting at us!"  
  
Tai swore. "Yeah, my gun's out, too. We're sitting ducks up here-let's get moving before we lose all the points we just won."  
  
They fled the platform and entered a network of tunnels below the floor. It was even darker down here, lit only by black light that made the whites of their eyes and their teeth shine purple.  
  
"You look like Radioactive Man," Sora giggled. Tai shrugged.  
  
"What can I say, I'm a real superhero...hel-lo! What have we got here?"  
  
More canned explosions were sounding from up ahead. Peering around the corner, they saw a room dotted with thick pillars and full of smoke and red light, presently playing host to a massive firefight between a dozen people decked out in red, green, and orange lights.  
  
"Perfect..." Tai whispered.  
  
"Oh, wait, let me guess!" Sora said, pleased to be catching on. "We fire at them, rack up a bunch of points, and scram before they realize that anyone extra is shooting at them?"  
  
"Bingo," Tai said, grinning at her. "You're not so bad at this...for a girl."  
  
"Hey, I resent that," Sora commented absently, already firing into the melee. Tai joined her, and they watched their scores rise for a few minutes before making a quick doubling-back exit.  
  
"Better safe than sorry; there's a lot more of them than us, and the teams could change at any minute and send them all off after us," Tai explained as they retreated.  
  
They left the tunnels. As they reached the middle floor, Sora heard a commotion, and ducked under cover with Tai right behind her. They watched a girl in red hurry past, pulling a girl in green by the arm. The green girl looked fit to kill; the red one looked immensely pleased with herself. Sora frowned.  
  
"What are they doing?" she hissed to Tai. "Why aren't they shooting at each other?"  
  
"I'm guessing Green there is a hostage," Tai said.  
  
"A what?"  
  
"A hostage. If you're dumb enough to let someone on the opposite team get close enough to fire their gun into your holster, you're taken hostage. The computer freezes your gun until you and your captor both put your guns in a hostage station. Captors get mondo points, because it's so hard to do. Hostages get points taken off."  
  
Sora nodded. "Oh, I get it..."  
  
The hostage and captor walked away into the distance, and Tai and Sora walked off again. They got into a few firefights, but came out generally on top.  
  
Passing under a catwalk, Sora heard a dull boom from above and jumped with surprise as her gun went dead and a round twenty points dropped from her total, instead of the usual two to five for being shot.  
  
"Hey! What the..."  
  
"Look out below!" came a yell of triumph from above. Sora looked up.  
  
"TK?!"  
  
Indeed, TK was waving cheerfully down at her from the catwalk, his gun in hand and aimed at a white box set in the floor of the catwalk.  
  
"Hi, Sora! Having fun?"  
  
"TK, what on earth did you just do?"  
  
"I blew up a depth charge!" he announced smugly. "I can't aim, so I let off the wide-range boxes instead!"  
  
"He's good at what he does," Tai admitted. "Now let's get out of here, before that thing charges up again and clobbers our scores for another twenty. See you later, TK!"  
  
"Bye!"  
  
As they ran out of the range of the 'depth charge', they heard another boom and several outraged yells from TK's vicinity. Sora laughed.  
  
"I've got to hand it to him, he's smart. Are those things all over the arena?"  
  
"Pretty much. He migrates from box to box, so you never know when you'll be hit. There's two kinds; depth charges and mines. DP's go off the minute you shoot them, in one direction; down. The points taken from victims go to the person who fired the gun at the DP. Mines give you five seconds to get away and then blow in every direction. You have to be careful not to get caught in your own blast. They both recharge every twenty-five seconds."  
  
"Nice way to make a living. Nobody can shoot at you, because their guns are all dead."  
  
"Exactly. He spent days in here memorizing the layout. He knows it by touch, now, maybe even better than I-ack!"  
  
Sora and Tai's scores had dipped by another twenty points, and their harnesses were making exploding sounds again.  
  
"Was that...a mine?"  
  
"Yup. Let's get out of here!"  
  
They took off down the hallway-and ran smack dab into a hive of Yellows. By the time they lost them, they were sweating and breathless, and more than happy to find a quiet corner and lean against the wall to get their wind back.  
  
"How long...has it...been?" Sora gasped.  
  
"Fifteen...or twenty...minutes, I...think," Tai managed. "We've got another...fifteen minutes...at least."  
  
"You're kidding! I'm going to...croak!"  
  
"You'll be...fine, you...baby-"  
  
Suddenly, a familiar low hum filled the air. Tai stopped talking mid word, and Sora frowned and looked down at her harness. It was blinking rainbows again.  
  
"Huh...?"  
  
Taken by surprise, Sora failed to make the connection in time. The blinking ran down and stopped...  
  
Sora was Green.  
  
Tai was Yellow.  
  
"Ack!" Sora yelled as Tai grinned and took a step forward. "Bug off, you moron!" She fired off her gun a few times at him, backing away nervously. He dodged the shots, then lunged for her, grabbing her around the waist.  
  
The image of the Red and her hostage flashed through Sora's mind, and she shrieked and tried to wriggle away, but it was too late. Tai's gun fired, and hers went dead.  
  
"Taichi Kamiya, you jerk!" she yelled, fighting an impulse to fling her useless gun at his head.  
  
"Thank you," he said with a grin. "I try. Can we go to the hostage station now?"  
  
"No!" she said, struggling not to give in to amusement at the whole situation. She was mad! "Hostage or not, I'm not going anywhere I don't want to!" *That should bottle him up.* she thought in satisfaction. *Maybe I can get him to beg me to go with him...*  
  
"Oh, that's not fair," Tai said, sounding petulant. Sora grinned.  
  
"Maybe not, but I'm not going to just walk peacefully to your dumb station."  
  
Tai paused and looked her up and down for a minute, as if sizing her up. Sora squirmed, not sure what this was all about...  
  
"Okay," he said nonchalantly, grabbed her by the arm and lifted.  
  
"Ack! What the hell? Tai!!!" Sora shrieked, kicking and struggling. Before she had had time to react, Tai had slung her across his shoulders in a variation of the fireman's carry and was now calmly abducting her.  
  
"What, aren't you having fun?" Tai said innocently. Sora swore poisonously in reply, and he tsked. "You know, you've gotten a real dirty mouth in the last few years."  
  
Pounding on his shoulders with her free arm proved useless; she was at such a bad angle that her blows could have come from a two-year-old having a tantrum. *Having a tantrum sounds pretty appropriate right about now,* she raged silently. "You put me down right now, Taichi Kamiya!!!"  
  
"Not a chance. I want my hostage points." He shook his head melodramatically. "You know, you could have avoided this, but no, you had to be difficult."  
  
Sora froze mid-kick, lapsing into silence. Tai stopped walking for a second, confused.  
  
"Tai?" Sora said meekly, after a second or two of standing in that awkward position and listening to distant 'explosions'.  
  
"Yeah?" he said, apprehensively.  
  
"You sound exactly like my mom."  
  
There was another moment of silence, as the full hilarity of the situation sank in. Then they both burst into hysterical laughter. Tai staggered back against the wall, having trouble holding Sora's weight, and made as if to put her down, but he miscalculated on exactly how hard they were laughing, and they tumbled to the floor in a heap instead as he lost his balance.  
  
They just lay there for a minute or two, winding down to the occasional comfortable giggle.  
  
"Ohhh, I have got to see if they have the surveillance video of that," Tai said weakly. "I am so buying it..."  
  
"Yeah, then we can show TK and Kari how you dropped me," Sora accused good-naturedly.  
  
"What? I did not drop you, you fell!"  
  
"You dropped me!"  
  
"Your feet were on the ground when I let go! Therefore, you fell!"  
  
"I wasn't ready! Therefore, you dropped me!"  
  
"Did not!"  
  
"Did too!"  
  
"Did...oh, man, this is exactly the kind of thing I've been *missing* for the last three years!" Tai suddenly burst out. Sora smiled.  
  
"I know. Mimi's fun, but she never horses around anymore, not with the baby and all..."  
  
"Yeah, I suppose that would put a lid on...hold on one God-forsaken minute here!" Tai cried, sitting up suddenly. "Baby? What baby?!"  
  
Sora winced. "Oh, great. I was going to wait for a good time to tell you all..."  
  
"Mimi's pregnant?!" Tai sputtered, sounding quite stunned. "What...when...*who*?!"  
  
Sighing, Sora crossed her arms behind her head, looking up at the ceiling. "Your good friend Ishida has about six months of relative freedom left before he becomes a daddy. They tied the knot a year or so after you and the rest of the gang were whisked away."  
  
Tai whistled. "Man...I don't know what to say. I mean, that's really great, and I'm happy for them...but what's Joe going to do?"  
  
"I presume he doesn't know, then?" Sora said, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"If I didn't, he doesn't," Tai said flatly. "Izzy's the one with the info line, and I talk to him a lot more than Joe does about things back home. Besides, Izzy has the sense to let someone else break that kind of news to the good doctor."  
  
"Great, just great," Sora said softly. "I hope he doesn't kill the messenger..."  
  
"Well, whether Joe flies off the handle or not, I'm glad Matt finally found somebody," Tai said, with a firm change of subject tone. He settled back onto the floor next to her. "How are they?"  
  
"They're wonderful," Sora said happily. "They act like teenagers in love half the time...he's a songwriter now, you know, for bands that don't want to write their own stuff? And he and the Young Wolves still get together every so often and sing. He's giving Mimi harmonica lessons, so she can join in. She picked the instrument."  
  
"Matt's a lucky guy," Tai said with a warm smile. Sora blinked.  
  
*Why is he...looking at me like that?* she thought, her stomach beginning to twist into knots.  
  
"Um...Tai?"  
  
"Mmhm?" Tai said absently, his eyes holding hers.  
  
Sora took a deep breath. Why hadn't she realized how close their faces were? The knots were beginning to turn into butterflies, and she realized her heartbeat had begun to race. "I, um...I..." she stammered, her mind refusing to stop spinning in dizzy circles long enough for her to form a lucid sentence. Tai had the oddest look on his face, and as they began to lean toward each other, Sora vaguely realized that it was probably mirrored on her own...  
  
"ATTACK!!!"  
  
Tai and Sora stumbled to their feet in confusion as a contingent of players in red descended on them from above. They had almost forgotten where they were, and were consequently-and without warning-now the mutual target for at least a half-dozen guns. To top things off, as Sora fumbled for her own gun she remembered that it still didn't work...  
  
Tai suddenly recognized a face.  
  
"Davis, you moron!"  
  
Davis grinned. "Hey, Tai, having a little trouble-" He froze momentarily, looking like he'd seen a ghost, and Sora realized that he had finally recognized her. For a split second, there was one less gun pinning them down. Sora had never been one to let an opportunity slide, and in this case she grabbed it by the throat.  
  
"Run away!!!" she yelled, grabbing Tai's hand and fleeing. He fired off a few parting shots over their shoulders as the red players disappeared behind them.  
  
When it was clear that they had escaped, Sora stopped and turned to face Tai.  
  
"Okay. Where is this hostage station, and how fast can we get to it?"  
  
Tai grinned. "Why the change of heart? I thought you hated my guts."  
  
"Oh, the gut-despising hasn't changed," Sora said cheerfully. "I just want my gun back. Then I'll gladly get out of your sight."  
  
"Deal," Tai said, and headed off down the hallway. Sora gamely followed, and they quickly reached another white box, this time mounted on a wall instead of the floor. It had two holes in it, each about the size of a gun barrel, and a button between the two.  
  
"Your gun goes in that one," Tai explained, pointing. Sora obliged, and Tai did the same and pressed the button. The machine lit up and chimed. Wincing as she watched her score drop and Tai's rise, she glared at him.  
  
"Oh, you are so paying for this, Taichi."  
  
"Whatever you say," Tai said, and pulled his gun out of the machine. "You've got five seconds before both of our guns start shooting again, and then it's open war."  
  
"Right, then. See ya, Kamiya," Sora said, and took off down a hallway before he could blink. As soon as she was safely away from him, however, she stopped and leaned against a wall, sighing with relief. *Oh, man, I needed to get out of there!* It wasn't that she didn't like Tai; far from it, she thought he was great. A little too great sometimes, in fact. *Whoever invented chocolate-brown eyes should go into either jail or military warfare,* she thought dryly, remembering the shakes they'd given her. *Anything with the ability to do that to a person ought to be illegal...*  
  
Standing straight again and giving herself a mental shake, she headed out into the arena. While she might mask it with jokes even to herself, what really made her nervous was exactly how close she had come to kissing her best friend, just before Davis's attack...and exactly how much she wanted to try that again...  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 8: Scars  
  
(AN) Minna arigatou gozaimasu! Thanks to y'all, this fic now holds place as fourth-most-reviews among my fics! (After 'Tears of an Angel' (3rd), 'Shadows in the Snow' (2nd), and the unkillable 'Not-So-Great Outdoors', with my biggest list of reviews at 27 (and also the only one of my fics to ever be plagarized...it showed up on the Digiexperience message boards once under a ficthief's name -_-*).  
  
There's your double shot of romance right there, folks...and more coming up, along with pathos, humor, and the introduction of two new characters of my own devising, one of them kind-hearted and the other...shall we say, most unsavory. M_~* Keep your eyeballs peeled for the next chapter...'Scars'! -Bandit O_o 


	9. Scars

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 8- Scars*~  
  
"What a rush!" Sora whooped over an hour later, leaving the Arena by the back door with her friends. "And it's free?"  
  
"As the air we're breathing," Kari said cheerfully. "Just one of the perks of living in Technology Central. It's actually supposed to be good training, if you can believe that."  
  
"Oh, I can believe that," Sora said with a smile. "I can definitely see where that would tie in."  
  
"Yeah, we all need to know what to do if our hostages don't want to cooperate," Tai said with a grin.  
  
"What, drop them on their heads?" Sora shot back. Tai looked affronted.  
  
"For the last time, I did not drop you! You fell!"  
  
"You're nuts, Kamiya. And you dropped me."  
  
"This from the girl who expects objects to pop out of the walls? Please. You fell!"  
  
"Um..." Kari said uncertainly. TK snorted.  
  
"I don't think we need to know."  
  
"I don't think I *want* to know," Kari said with a shake of her head. Sora laughed.  
  
"So, where next?"  
  
It was getting on toward evening; they'd played two more games, and were all comfortably tired and ready to wind down for the day.  
  
"How about the roof?" Kari suggested. "We can look at the stars."  
  
TK frowned. "Kamiya Hikari, are you trying to leave me out on purpose or is it just kind of an coincidence?"  
  
Kari reddened. "Sorry..."  
  
"It's okay," TK said, giving her hand a squeeze. "I'm just teasing you. Maybe we could go to the Quonset? We can get something to eat."  
  
"All right!" Sora heartily agreed. "I'm starving-I haven't eaten since those pancakes."  
  
"*You're* starving?" Tai said incredulously. "At least you had pancakes...I had orange juice and a flat Styrofoam thing-"  
  
"They're English muffins!" Kari protested.  
  
"And a flat Styrofoam thing," Tai repeated loudly, "and I haven't eaten since then! My vote's definitely for the Quonset."  
  
"You really shouldn't complain about the med-ward food so much, Tai. It was your choice to spend three days there...but all right. The Quonset it is," Kari agreed with a smile, and once again Sora got to follow behind as the 'natives' led the way.  
  
"You know, Tai, the hospital wing food isn't that bad," TK was reasoning as they reached the little building that was apparently the Quonset.  
  
"How would you know? You never have to eat it; you've got Kari to cook for you."  
  
"Hey, you can cook just fine for yourself, Tai."  
  
"With what? Rolled oats and a carton of milk? We can't all have girlfriends on Nutrition Team, bringing food home all the time."  
  
"It's called oatmeal, Tai, and she's not my girlfriend!"  
  
"It's called gray papier-mache slop, and if you expect me to believe that, you must be mistaking me for Davis."  
  
"Davis? Davis would think she was my girlfriend if she said two words to me."  
  
"I meant intelligence-wise, TK. The jealousy factor didn't come to mind."  
  
"Sorry, I can't sympathize with you there. The 'jealousy factor' tends to hit *me* right between the eyes most of the time..."  
  
"We're here!" Kari interrupted, looking glad for the distraction from the topic of Davis, whose unwelcome company they had barely avoided as they left the Arena. (To their great satisfaction, Kari and Sora had jointly creamed him in their second game.)  
  
The Quonset turned out to be a sort of restaurant/dance-hall/bar combination, packed to the brim with people, none of whom appeared to be older than their twenties. They plowed their way through the mob to four seats at the counter, and were attended by a pleasant-faced, plump blond waitress.  
  
"Hey, Kari, brought the gang down? What can I do you for?" She spoke English with a lazy drawl, and her smile was friendly and lit up her face like a beacon.  
  
"I think burgers and shakes would be good. This is Lily," she added with a glance at Sora, who nodded.  
  
The waitress gave Kari a dubious look. "At this time of the evening? You sure you don't want something more...adult?"  
  
Kari blushed and shook her head, jerking a thumb in Sora's direction. "Nah, we've got one fresh from the med wing and she's got doctor's orders. We don't want to make her jealous, or we'll be the next ones under Joe's watchful eye."  
  
Chuckling, Lily leaned across the counter to get a better look at Sora...and gave a little gasp. "Naw! Can't be...you're Miss Takenouchi, aren't you?"  
  
"Um..." Sora said, rather disappointed. Was this friendly person going to go all weird on her, too? "I guess..."  
  
"Well, welcome to the Project, sweetie!" the waitress said with a warm smile, and gave her hand a firm shake before picking up her pad of orders again. "Now, what was it you wanted?"  
  
Relieved, Sora smiled back. "I think a burger and a shake sounds great right about now. What flavors do you have?"  
  
"Hmm...for you, sugar, I'd recommend the pineapple malt."  
  
"The what?" Sora said, unable to repress a grimace. "Are you sure that...works? Together, I mean?"  
  
"Trust me, it's heavenly," the waitress said firmly. "Right, one pineapple malt and a burger with..."  
  
"Everything but the onions," Sora said, deciding to give in on the malt thing.  
  
"Got it."  
  
When everyone had finished ordering, they sat back and talked for a while, catching up on life in general. The time flew by, and before Sora knew it, their food was ready.  
  
As Lily set a tall glass of pale yellow stuff in front of her, ice-cold and beaded with water, Sora couldn't help looking doubtfully at it. She was thirsty, though, and after a few bites of burger, which would have been delicious under any circumstances and was like ambrosia to her growling stomach, she was desperately in need of a drink. Unwrapping a straw, she steeled herself and took a sip.  
  
"Hm, tsrlgdd!" Swallowing, she smiled, pleasantly surprised. "Hey! That's really good!" she repeated.  
  
"Yeah, pineapple and malt: who woulda thunk it?"  
  
Sora gave a start. "Missy!"  
  
The teenager smiled, leaning on the counter next to her. She had clearly just come off of the dance floor; her rainbow-hued bangs were damp and stuck to her forehead, and she was breathing heavily. She was as irrepressible as ever, though.  
  
"Yup, it's me all right. The fun has arrived, and all that good stuff."  
  
"What are you doing here?" Sora asked, curious.  
  
"Well, I *was* dancing. Now..." she shrugged, with a long-suffering expression on her face. "Now, I'm trying to get my cousin to go and dance before his feet fuse to the linoleum."  
  
"Your cousin?" Sora said, confused. "Do I know him?"  
  
Missy stared at her, incredulous, and then burst out laughing.  
  
"What? What's so funny?"  
  
The younger girl waved a hand to someone in the crowd. "Hey, Cuz, get your butt over here! Somebody wants to talk to you!"  
  
A familiar voice sounded over the commotion of music and voices.  
  
"Keep your shirt on, Missy, I'm coming!"  
  
Sora openly stared.  
  
"Joe?!"  
  
The bluenette MD looked owlishly out at her from behind his glasses.  
  
"Who did you expect, the Easter bunny?"  
  
"You...you guys are cousins?" Sora stammered, staring at them. Short, sturdy, freckled Missy, with her bright brown eyes that sparkled fun, was cousins with tall, skinny, serious-minded Joe, black-eyed and nearsighted? They looked nothing alike…but as she goggled at them, she noticed for the first time that behind the rainbow-hued bangs, Missy's hair and ponytail were the same dark blue as Joe's hair, and that the stubborn set of the girl's chin reminded her of Joe when he had his mind really fixed on a goal. Blinking with surprise, she looked from Missy to Joe, and back to Missy again…  
  
"I think we've fried her brain," Missy said knowingly to Joe, who scowled and rolled his eyes, repressing a smile.  
  
"Oh, thanks a lot, Missy. I just got her fixed up, and you've already managed to short-circuit her?"  
  
"Short-circuit?" an oily voice purred. "What's short-circuited?"  
  
Sora, Joe, and Missy all turned to stare at the new speaker, a short, scrawny-looking man of indeterminate age, but probably not older than thirty, with pale, watery gray eyes and greasy-dull black hair that you could see the comb tracks in. His ratty face crinkled in a smile that looked out of place on his thin, pale lips, and he looked from one face to another with a nosy expression.  
  
"None of your business, Geri," Missy muttered, glaring at him with narrow eyes. Geri sneered.  
  
"Oh, it's very much my business, Ms. Kido. Being in Electronics Team and all, I take it upon myself to find out all I can about the workings within the Project HQ."  
  
"He takes it upon himself to find out all he can about *everything*," Missy whispered out of the side of her mouth to Sora, who giggled. "Especially stuff he isn't supposed to know."  
  
"Excuse me, did you say something?" Geri said, with slimy distaste in his voice. Missy glared right back at him, loathing in her gaze.  
  
"Why is that any of your business, Ratface?" she said, cool as marble on a winter's day. Geri blinked repeatedly with fury, his pasty cheeks flushing. The effect was like badly applied rouge, patchy and clownish.  
  
"I make it my business, as I have reasons to believe it was about *me*."  
  
"Maybe it was. So what?"  
  
Geri's small eyes narrowed. "So, I wouldn't talk if I were you. There are a few things I could say in front of these people that I don't think you'd like. For example, how you have to live off of your cousin's good graces because no one else will take you in. Or how your parents ditched you here because they couldn't stand your constant giving them crap! Or maybe how nobody really likes you because you're a worthless little-"  
  
He never finished his tirade. Missy, twin red flags of outrage riding high on her cheeks, whipped her foot up and around in a powerful roundhouse kick to the head. Her boot connected with Geri's temple, and his face went slack as he crumpled instantly to the floor.  
  
Sora stared in outright awe. Missy, in the meantime, bent and took the inert jerk's pulse with obvious disgust at having to touch him with anything other than her boot.  
  
"He's not dead," she said, sounding disappointed. "Maybe I should have gone for the mouth...a broken jaw would have shut him up for a while. But I was too mad to aim very well. Oh, well, better luck next time..."  
  
Still goggling at the younger girl, Sora managed to choke out a dazed, "Where did you learn to do that?"  
  
"I take karate," Missy said offhandedly. "I'm a black belt, in fact. Why?"  
  
"No reason," Sora croaked, still stunned. Joe glared at his cousin, owlish again.  
  
"Did you really have to do that? I know he's a jerk, but in the middle of a crowded room? You could have hurt someone!" He paused, looking at Geri's sprawled form. "Well, someone decent, I mean... The hospital wing isn't getting any less crowded, you know."  
  
"Shove off, Four-Eyes. I'm sure a cold-pack of your Super Gunk can fix him up in no time," Missy said cheerfully. "I couldn't let him tell Sora a bunch of lies about me, could I?"  
  
"So he was lying?" Sora said.  
  
Missy turned to look at her, a bit hurt. "What, you thought that was true? I've got plenty of friends, Sora. And my parents were very sad to see me go...but also very supportive, which I owe them a lot for. Furthermore, I have my own apartment and my own job, and I put food on my own table. If that's what he calls 'living off my cousin's good graces', he's got some serious brushing-up to do on his Japanese."  
  
"Sorry," Sora apologized, feeling sheepish. "I just..."  
  
"Needed to make sure? No problem," Missy said generously. "I would, too, if I'd only known me for less than a day. Hey, Joe, I think there's a slow one coming up...and that girl over there's looking your way!"  
  
"What?" Joe cried, looking about to panic. "Where-hey!" Missy had ducked off into the crowd. "Come back here!" Pausing, he looked angrily down at Geri's body, then made a decision and gave it a swift kick. "Wake up, you."  
  
Groaning, the diminutive man rolled over, then staggered to his feet and gave Joe an extremely dirty look before hobbling away, holding a hand to his bruised temple, muttering curses all the way, but apparently deciding to cut his losses and get out of the area before Missy got back.  
  
"You'll pay for that...you *and* your cousin," he called as he reached the door. Joe rolled his eyes.  
  
"Yeah, whatever you say. Get some ice on that, huh? I don't want to waste a medpack on you."  
  
Glaring poisonously, Geri stomped away.  
  
"Talk about a Napoleonic complex..." Joe watched the unpleasant character until he was out of sight, and then quickly said to Sora, "Excuse me for a minute. I'm supposed to be looking after Missy, you know; I promised my aunt and uncle I would make sure she didn't get into any-Missy! You're not supposed to..."  
  
Having spotted his cousin across the room, Joe was already disappearing into the crowd after her; his voice faded into the noise before Sora could hear what Missy wasn't supposed to do.  
  
"Those two..." she muttered, but smiled. Life here certainly wasn't boring!  
  
Up on a small stage at the other side of the room, the band was finishing up their song, a heavy-metal tune. As they pounded out the last few beats, a slender girl with long blond hair came shyly up the steps of the stage. The crowd fell silent, then let out a cheer as she took the microphone and seated herself on a tall wooden stool. Sora couldn't see her face very well at all in the dim lighting, but the girl didn't look familiar.  
  
The band struck up a flowing tune that contrasted sharply with the rock-and-roll and heavy-metal riffs they'd been playing up until then. Someone must have been manning a lights booth, because the lights changed from neon rainbows to soft blue. Smiling, the girl began to sing. Sora didn't recognize the tune; it was a relatively stock love song, but the girl's voice made it wonderful. Her voice was beautiful, and soared over the listening people. Sora noticed a lot of the dancers pairing off and slow-dancing.  
  
"Want to dance?" Tai asked hesitantly after a few seconds, leaning toward her. Sora opened her mouth to tell him yes...  
  
*Do you really want to risk getting close to him? You'll be leaving soon, remember? Don't forget what almost happened back in the Arena!*  
  
Taken by surprise by the sudden thought, Sora closed her mouth, frowning.  
  
"Sora?" Tai asked again. Sora sighed.  
  
"I...think I'll sit this one out, thanks."  
  
Looking bewildered and a bit hurt, Tai nodded and went reluctantly back to his conversation with TK. Sora felt guilty, but really, it was the best thing for both of them. Friendship was great, but anything more...? She couldn't risk it.  
  
*No matter how much you want to?*  
  
Sora scowled at the thought. *Okay, little voice, whose side are you on? If you're going to play with my conscience, at least make up your mind which way you want to twist me!*  
  
The song was over in just a few minutes. The singer climbed down from her seat to wild applause, and Sora lost sight of her in the crowd. The band struck up a rendition of Turning Japanese, and the whoops and hollers of people getting back into their swing drowned out thought. Tai and TK slipped off to dance, and Kari had struck up a conversation with the girl on her right. Sighing, Sora let her head rest in her hands...  
  
"Some night, hm?"  
  
Startled, Sora sat up bolt-upright to stare at the girl who had taken a seat next to her. It didn't take a genius to realize that this was the singer who'd been performing a minute ago; those bright-gold ringlets were impossible to forget, and her voice was light and pleasantly musical.  
  
"The Quonset's packed to the ceiling," she continued, completely unaware of Sora's surprise...or perhaps politely ignoring it. "I'm going to overheat any minute now..." She smiled; it was a nice smile, an honest, sweet one. Sora slowly smiled back.  
  
"Yeah, it's kind of getting stifling. I don't mind too much, though."  
  
"You're lucky; I sweat like a pig. It's a curse." She smiled again, and laughed merrily. "I'm Yukiko, by the way. Call me Yuki."  
  
"It's nice to meet you. My friends ditched me to dance...although I can't really blame Tai. I didn't want to go with him."  
  
Yuki's blue eyes widened...well, the one that Sora could see did. The girl was sitting with her face turned only partly toward Sora, so that all she could see was the half of her face toward her. Still, that side of her face was wearing a very odd expression.  
  
"Oh! You must be Sora..." she exclaimed. Sora blinked.  
  
"Yeah...are you going to go all hyper? Because 90 percent of the people I've met here do that as soon as they hear my name."  
  
Yuki laughed again, and the odd look disappeared. "No, I'm all right with it. I'm on Strike Team, that's all, and Tai told me about you. He liked to talk about you..." Yuki rolled her eyes, giving the unspoken impression that maybe Tai liked to talk about Sora a little *too* much. Sora smiled.  
  
"Thanks for putting up with him. So, Tai's on Strike Team?" she said, making conversation. Yuki blinked.  
  
"Tai is the *head* of Strike Team," she said, looking a bit surprised that Sora didn't know this already. "He helps at Joe's clinic between missions as an assistant, but he mostly works as a fantastic leader for the team."  
  
"Tai's the *head*?" Sora said, not sure what to make of this. Something else that Yuki had said niggled at her, but she ignored it. "Wow..."  
  
"He used to talk at me constantly about you," Yuki said with an ironic grin, getting back on subject. "I say 'at', not 'to', because oftentimes it was hard to get a word in edgewise."  
  
"You know, with all that power and prestige," Sora joked, "it's surprising that he wasn't swamped with ladies while I was gone. I guess that's loyalty for you," she said with a sigh.  
  
Yuki didn't answer. Sora frowned, looking up at the girl, and saw that the odd look had come back.  
  
"What?" she said, a sinking feeling appearing in her stomach along with the malt and burger.  
  
"Well..." Yuki said reluctantly. "There *was* this one girl..."  
  
Sora's heart hit the floor. "Oh, God..." she whispered, feeling icy. *What does she mean? Does she mean what I think she means? Why on earth didn't he *tell* me?!*  
  
Yuki looked apologetic. "I shouldn't have said that," she said quickly, alarmed by the look on Sora's face. "I'm sorry, I just...well, you asked, and I..."  
  
"No, it's okay," Sora said, with a feeling like someone walking up to the executioner's block. "Go on, please." *At least I won't have to feel guilty anymore about telling him no...*  
  
Yuki swallowed. "I still don't think-"  
  
"Tell me."  
  
Sora's voice was firm. Yuki sighed. "All right, but I..." She saw Sora's face, and began. "Well...like I said, there was this girl. She was on Strike Team, too. She joined at the second Gathering... On her first mission, Tai rescued her and two of her friends from a feral Mammothmon. She...well, frankly, she fell head-over-heels for him. She was absolutely smitten with the man."  
  
Sora looked at the floor, feeling a bit sick. "Was she pretty?"  
  
"Everyone I know said so," Yuki admitted, "but she didn't think she was anything special."  
  
Sora's stomach sank even further.  
  
"Anyway, she followed him everywhere after that. Got him drinks, carried stuff for him, tried to get on his team at the Arena, the whole shebang. She really was in love with him. She thought he was handsome, funny, wonderful; the best thing since sliced bread, really. And one day, she finally got up the nerve to ask him out..."  
  
Sora swallowed, bracing herself...  
  
"And he told her no."  
  
"What?" Sora said, stunned.  
  
"He told her no," Yuki repeated, with a sigh. "He said that he already had someone that he was waiting for. That he didn't even know if she would ever come, but that he couldn't give up the chance to be with her for anything, or anyone, no matter how wonderful." Yuki sighed again, and shook her head slightly. "He told his admirer that she was a great girl, but that he just couldn't say yes."  
  
A mix of sadness for this poor girl and intense relief washed over Sora, and she let out a breath that she hadn't known she was holding. "Oh..."  
  
"She was heartbroken," Yuki said, talking more to herself than to Sora now. "But she decided that she would do anything to convince him that they were meant for each other, so she signed up for a dangerous mission that was to be led by him, about a week later. They were supposed to go and find a valuable item, but instead they were ambushed by the enemy. Their jeep exploded..." Yuki swallowed, hard. "She was caught in the wreckage, along with one other member of the team. He was blinded; she was permanently scarred."  
  
"TK..." Sora whispered. Yuki glanced at her.  
  
"Oh, you know him? ...How silly of me, of course you would. You're both Core group." She smiled weakly. "Anyway, Tai got her back to the HQ, along with TK, but she took a long time to recover from her injuries. Even the immersion therapy couldn't get rid of all of the scarring. Tai spent a lot of time sitting and talking with her during her recovery, and by the time she left the hospital wing, she was finally convinced that nothing was going to change his mind about her. They stayed friends...but she never really got over him." Sitting back in her chair now that she'd finished, Yuki blinked hard, looking sadly at the wall.  
  
Sora frowned, wondering... "What was the girl's name?" she asked carefully.  
  
Yuki turned to look at her, full-on, and Sora sucked in her breath. The pretty girl's face was marred on the left side by a long, pink scar nearly half an inch wide that ran up the side of her face from chin to hairline, missing her eye but splitting her left eyebrow. Yuki smiled sadly, and held up her left arm; a series of similar scars branched from under the sleeve cuff, almost all the way across the back of her hand.  
  
"Her name was Yukiko," she said, very softly, and Sora saw a slight shimmer of tears in her eyes.  
  
"I'm so sorry," Sora began, but Yuki stopped her.  
  
"Don't be," she said gently. "It wasn't meant to be. You ought to know two things, though...first, that you're the luckiest girl in the world, and you really shouldn't throw that away, and secondly, that I think you're about to be offered another dance, and if I were you, I'd say yes this time. Not everyone gets true happiness, you see; some of us have to take joy in others' happiness, instead." She smiled, and slipped from her stool, merging into the crowd.  
  
"Wait! What do you mean-"  
  
"Hey, Sora, over here!"  
  
Sora looked up, distracted, and saw Tai making his way toward them with TK in tow. They stopped next to the girls, grinning and breathing hard.  
  
"Sorry about leaving you like that," Tai apologized. "Did you find someone to talk to?"  
  
"You could say that," Sora said softly. She looked up again, and met his eyes. "Um..." Dimly, she realized that the band was playing another slow song, one she knew this time; Drops of Jupiter, by Train. An oldie, but one of her favorites. "Want to dance?"  
  
Tai looked surprised, and then smiled, his eyes lighting up.  
  
"I'd love to," he said, and took her hand. They moved out onto the floor, and turned to each other. Sora slid her arms around his neck, and relaxed in his arms, swaying to the music. The butterflies were back, but she wasn't afraid of them anymore.  
  
She might not be staying long, but while she did, she would make her own joy.  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 9: Starry Night  
  
(AN) This fic is currently moving into third place for most reviews! Thankees! You guys rule! I owe you all so much...and so, today I dedicate yet another chapter, this time to a very appropriately named reviewer.  
  
  
This chapter is dedicated to skarred for unfailing reviews and support. Arigatou gozaimasu!  
  
  
Thanks skarred! M_~* Coming up, starlit fluff in Ch.9, 'Starry Night'! And yet, however wonderful a moment may seem, all is not right in the world... *dun dun DUN!* -Bandit O_o 


	10. Starry Night

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 9- Starry Night*~  
  
An hour or so and three slow dances later, two shadowy figures made their way across the dark complex, by the light streaming from the windows of the few houses with people still awake in them.  
  
"You're sure you know where we're going?" Sora said softly, holding tightly to Tai's hand.  
  
"Positive," he said with a smile, looking back at her. "It's right over the main gate, and that's hard to miss."  
  
Sora nodded. They continued in companionable silence until a stairway loomed before them, part of the wall of the outer complex. Tai led her toward it, motioning for quiet as he nodded toward a small door nearby, also set into the wall of the complex.  
  
"That's the small gate, for foot passengers. The guard locks it up and leaves soon, but he's probably still there now, and we don't want to get in trouble with him."  
  
Sora smiled. "Was that the gate that they brought me in through?"  
  
"Probably not," Tai said, starting to climb the steps with her right behind him. "There's another gate nearer the hospital wing, but only the doctors and field medics have keys to it. This one opens with any master key; we've all got them. One of your rescuers was a medic, so I'm guessing that he brought you through there to save time."  
  
  
Sora nodded again, and concentrated on not missing her footing in the dark. They reached the top of the steps, and Tai gave her hand a squeeze. Sora's eyes widened as she saw the view, and she looked around herself in wonder.  
  
"Tai, this is amazing..."  
  
It really was. They stood on a bridge-like archway over the main gate, with low walls serving as railings on either side. The sky stretched above them, clear and dark and studded with stars that sparkled like diamonds on blue-black velvet. The land was plains or desert; she couldn't tell in the darkness, but it was made up of rolling, low hills that went on for as far as she could see. A road stretched across it like a black ribbon, past the horizon. The effect was simple, striking, and strangely beautiful.  
  
Smiling at her reaction, Tai settled down to sit with his back against the inner wall. Sora joined him, looking up at the stars in wonder.  
  
"The sky is so clear...I don't think I've ever seen so many stars, except in the Digital world, but the constellations are all wrong for us to be there."  
  
"In Tokyo, the city lights are too bright for the stars to show," Tai said, looking up as well. "Out here there's no civilization for miles...wherever 'here' is. So there's nothing to ruin the view." He sighed happily.  
  
"It's beautiful," Sora murmured, leaning slightly against him. Tai slipped an arm around her waist, smiling.  
  
"I can think of something more beautiful," he said softly. Sora turned to look at him, and then blushed and looked away.  
  
"Thank you..." she said, and changed the subject, a little nervous now that the image of Yuki's sad face was beginning to fade. "Um..." The thought of Yuki reminded her of something she'd said. "The person I talked to while you were off dancing told me that you work as an assistant at Joe's wing."  
  
"Sometimes," Tai admitted. "When I'm not doing something else. Why?"  
  
"When I came here...I mean, when I *first* came here," Sora began, feeling a little awkward, "I heard people talking. There was somebody who sounded like he was in charge, and someone who was worried about me, and someone who wasn't being very nice to the worried person. Were you...?"  
  
"The worried one," Tai said, sighing. "You have no idea what that was like. I was just helping Joe file some records, and all of a sudden this crew of people bursts in with a stretcher, yelling about a Snimon attack. That gave me enough of a scare, but when I went over to help and it was *you* on the stretcher..." His voice trailed off, and Sora realized that he was shaking. "You looked..."  
  
"Dead?" Sora said gently. Tai swallowed hard.  
  
"Yeah," he admitted. "Once I knew that you were alive, I felt better, but then when Joe said that you might not make it after all..."  
  
"I know," Sora said, sighing and leaning her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry about that."  
  
"No, it's all right," Tai protested. "It wasn't your fault; it's not like you meant to be attacked by that thing. I don't even know how they knew where to send it..."  
  
The cryptic comment confused Sora, but she let it slide. "Who was the person who told you that you were grasping at straws?"  
  
Tai snorted. "Davis. Why do you think it gave him such a shock when he ran into you in the Arena? He's been feeling guilty about his big mouth for days; he kept dropping by to check on me."  
  
Sora smiled. "After you left, Joe told him that he hadn't grown up at all since we were kids in the Digital world, or something like that."  
  
Tai let out a surprised laugh. "Really? I would have liked to have seen that."  
  
"Well, I would have liked to have seen Kari yelling at you about TK," Sora teased. To her surprise, Tai stopped smiling.  
  
"About all of that..."  
  
"I know it wasn't your fault, Tai. I'm impressed that you got them back here so quickly-"  
  
"No, it isn't that," Tai interrupted, then paused, looking a bit sheepish. "I just remembered...you know how I told you that you weren't the only one who had a near-death experience?"  
  
Sora nodded, not sure what to expect from this new topic of conversation.  
  
"Yes..."  
  
Tai let go of her to pull up his sleeve, and then showed his arm to her. A white scar ran diagonally from about halfway down his right forearm to his elbow. It looked like whatever had done it had been vicious. Sora frowned.  
  
"How did you...?"  
  
"Strike Team had to go collect an Ogremon from a back street of Tokyo. I was distracted, and it tried to squash me with its club. That was a few months after TK's accident, and my heart wasn't in it. I got out of the way, but just barely; one of the spikes caught me, and my group had to rush me back to the HQ. That's just one end of it; the rest is here."  
  
Pulling his sleeve back into place, he traced a line with one finger from the middle of his right side up to just below the center of his collarbone. Sora bit her lip, looking at where it ended. Tai nodded, guessing what she was thinking.  
  
"It missed my jugular by about an inch when it hit, and then cut down from there. If I had been a second later in getting out of the way, I would have been meat for the grinder." He sighed, smiling ruefully. "I've since learned that you need to have your full attention on a Digimon when it's trying to kill you. They're a lot harder to beat on your own..."  
  
"Hang on...you battle Digimon?" Sora said, confused. Tai winced.  
  
"I can't answer that," he said sheepishly. "It's against orders...but I think you already know the answer. I shot off my mouth again, didn't I?"  
  
"I won't tell," Sora promised, but her mind was reeling with questions.  
  
Tai smiled. "Thank you," he said, and slipped his arm around her shoulders, looking wistfully off at the distant constellations. The stars were reflected in his chocolate-brown eyes... Sora's mind stopped worrying about questions; now it was just reeling. She tensed up a bit, but relaxed again, suddenly feeling foolish.  
  
*What am I afraid of?* she wondered. *Nothing, that's what. I've known Tai forever and then some...and I think I'd like to get to know him a little better. Why is that so hard to admit? Why can't I just...say it?* She shook her head, and Tai looked at her, concerned.  
  
"Is something wrong?" he asked, his brown eyes caring and warm.  
  
*Oh, he is so good....*  
  
"No," Sora said softly, and made her decision. "Everything's just perfect..."  
  
She leaned forward, and their lips met. His arms wrapped around her, and Sora felt that sense of utter contentment and joy, and an excitement that hummed in her blood and rang in her ears...the feeling she'd had only once before in her life, a feeling of completion. She reached up to circle his neck with her arms, and gave herself up to enjoying him...  
  
Long minutes later, dizzy and elated, they paused. Sora was sitting in Tai's lap with her hands tangled in his hair, Tai resting his forehead against hers the way he had when they were reunited, looking into her eyes. The sky was reflected in her irises, shining from the depths of brandy-brown happiness.  
  
"I'm half expecting to wake up and find out this was all a dream," he whispered. Sora nodded, her heart full to bursting.  
  
"Me, too...but it feels too right for that."  
  
Tai smiled. "I can't believe you're finally here," he sighed, and kissed her again. Sora kissed back, never wanting the moment to end...and then his words sank in, and she stiffened, her happiness guttering like a candle flame.  
  
"What?" Tai said, pulling back.  
  
"Nothing," Sora murmured, looking down. "Just cold..."  
  
"We'd better go in," Tai said reluctantly. Sora sighed and nodded, and slid out of his lap, standing. She gave him a hand up, and their fingers stayed intertwined as they went down the stairs and toward the door into the main complex. Sora held tightly to his hand as they walked...but her happiness was dying, and a terrible unsureness was taking its place.  
  
*'Finally here'?* she thought with a shiver. *As if I were here to stay... It's a wonderful place, but it's full of danger. I'm leaving, aren't I?* Tai held the door for her as they went inside, and she smiled at him, but uncertainty and fear were growing inside her. *I do have a choice...right?*  
  
She practically fell onto the hide-a-bed as soon as they got to the apartment, and Tai didn't even mention any other 'ideas' for sleeping arrangements. That was one of the really great things about him; he cared, and about much more than just the usual guy stuff. Still, Sora couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned, worrying, long after Tai's light was out and the steady sound of his sleeping breathing reached her ears. He sounded so peaceful...  
  
Sitting up in bed, she gazed out the window at the stars, which suddenly seemed cold and uncaring. Homesickness hit her like a sledgehammer, and tears welled up in her eyes.  
  
"I have to get home," she whispered into the pale blue shadows of the room. "I have to leave!" She swallowed hard, remembering the heavy, locked gates... "I never promised anything...they can't just keep me here, can they?" A hint of a whimper made its way into her voice, as she looked out at the constellations above her. The same stars that Mimi might be looking at right now, and Matt, and her mother... Loneliness darkened her heart.  
  
And yet, they were the same stars she had gazed up at that very evening, at Tai's side... A tear of tortured indecision ran down her cheek.  
  
*I just found him again...how can I possibly leave him? But...how could I ever agree to stay here with him? I don't know what this mission is about, or how long it will take…it might even be forever! To never see Mimi again? To never see the baby that's been my life for the last three months? And what about Mama, and Yolei, and all of the others?  
  
*And yet, I feel like I found the other half of my heart here, and I'll never be whole without it. I can't decide something like this! I don't *know* what to decide...I just don't know!!  
  
*Oh, God...what am I going to do?*  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 10: Eclipse Rising  
  
(AN) Why, oh why are there no more reviews? Yes, there are three or four of you who consistently review me, but when you've gotten only 2 reviews a chapter for 2 chapters in a row... What is it? What is it that other writers have and I don't, so that their most grammar-free, misspelled homonculi gather reviews like a sofa attracts cat hair, whereas my precious fics are left out in the cold? Why?!  
  
*deep breath, a few coughs* Okay, I'm all right now. I just...I'm all right. Please, people, review me! *pauses, thinks for a moment* How's this? You don't get to find out what Sora decides until I see some more input here. A perfect plan... T_T So review! Review now! Mwahaha! -a review-starved (read: deranged) Tobu Ishi 


	11. Eclipse Rising

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 10- Eclipse Rising*~  
  
Hours later, an almost-silent shadow slipped into Tai's room. Cat-footedly quiet, Sora paused and looked down at Tai's sleeping face, lit with moonlight streaming through the window. The bedside clock read 3:27 AM. A tear fell on his pillow, and Sora bent to gently kiss him one last time, then slipped out of the room again.  
  
Tai stirred, but didn't wake up.  
  
Stopping to place a piece of folded paper, borrowed from a kitchen cabinet, on her pillow, Sora went to the doorway, and looked down at the side table where a small plastic card lay. Hesitantly, she picked it up, and turned to the door.  
  
"I'll leave it in the gatehouse for you, Tai," she whispered to the peaceful silence of the apartment, blinking back tears. "I'm sorry, and I don't want to do this, but I have to go...there are people depending on me, people who need me. I'm so sorry..."  
  
She slid the card through the lock, and the door swung open. Clutching the master key in her hand, Sora walked out into the darkness of the hallway and closed the door behind her.  
  
Now her steps quickened, as she fled the sadness that hung over her like a shroud, and the horrible, seemingly inescapable uncertainty rising inside of her once again.  
  
"I'm doing the right thing!" she whispered to no one, desperation in her voice, as she broke into a run. The maps were easy to follow, and she made her way quickly toward the main gate. "I know I am!"  
  
*Then...why are you running?*  
  
Sora shook her head hard, sending tears flying, and kept going, ignoring the dratted voice. "I want to get it over with. It will be easier for both of us this way. I'm not abandoning him!"  
  
*No one said you were...except you.*  
  
The thought stung. Sora had had long practice in ignoring that voice, though. It had been torturing her for three long years…and now, more than likely, the rest of her life as well.  
  
Swallowing hard, she slowed her steps to check one of the maps Joe had shown her. Reading it quickly, she heard footsteps approaching and ducked around the corner. A pair of men in lab coats walked by, talking in undertones. They didn't see her, and as soon as they were out of sight, Sora began to run again…  
  
She reached the glass door that Joe had taken her out of much sooner than she had expected...but then, by the look of the maps, he'd taken her on a very roundabout route, probably to spare her healing body a lot of stair-climbing by taking the glide-walks. As it was, she was beginning to get a stitch in her side, but she was determined not to let it stop her.  
  
"The moment of truth," she murmured, looking at the door. "If this card doesn't work, then I'm trapped here..."  
  
*But do you really want to go?* that little part of her mind quietly asked.  
  
"I guess..." Catching the hesitant tone in her voice, Sora narrowed her eyes and set her jaw defiantly. "Yes." Walking up to the door, she slid the stolen card through the lock and held her breath…  
  
A small green light lit up above the card slot, and the door opened with a soft click and a sinuous sliding sound. Letting out her held breath in a drawn-out sigh, Sora lifted her chin, wiped her face dry on her sleeve, and walked out into the courtyard, letting the door slide shut and lock itself behind her…  
  
  
  
He stood on the top of Spiral Mountain, twelve years old all over again. The wind blew around him, but he wasn't afraid. Next to him was Sora, smiling at him from under that crazy blue hat of hers. Birdramon wheeled overhead. Though the sun shone, the breezes whipped their hair around their faces as they gazed at each other. They leaned forward, and he realized that Sora's crest was glowing… Their lips met.  
  
Suddenly, a clap of thunder shook the mountain, and Birdramon flew across the sun, extinguishing it and plunging them into darkness. The shaking threw his feet from under him, and he fell, tumbling head over feet, down and down...and landed with a bump. Blinking, he struggled to see, to find Sora... Then he realized that they weren't on the mountain anymore. Small points of light glimmered in the darkness above him, and he recognized the walkway that crowned the arch over the front door of HQ. As his eyes adjusted, he saw Sora standing before him, older now, her hair still wafting around her face in a breeze he could no longer feel. She was her present self…yet she still wore her crest, and it glowed with a bright red light that threw ruby-toned shadows across her face.  
  
"Tai…" she whispered.  
  
"Sora," he said, and stood, reaching out to her…but she shrank away from him.  
  
"I'm sorry, Tai," she said, her face sad and distant.  
  
"What?" he said, confused and a bit frightened.  
  
"I'm sorry," she said, and began to back away from him.  
  
"Wait! Come back!" he cried, really afraid now.  
  
"People depend on me…"  
  
Her lips hadn't moved; the words seemed to echo around him from the very stars themselves.  
  
"People need me…"  
  
"I need you!" he pleaded, taking a step toward her, arms outstretched, but she was almost to the edge of the walkway.  
  
"I'm so sorry…" Her eyes still locked with his, she grasped the railing tightly with both hands, lifted one foot onto it... The darkness below seemed to stretch for miles.  
  
"No!" he yelled, and ran toward her, trying to stop her, to make her see…  
  
Her eyes widened, bright with tears, and she drew back, her balance wavering as her remaining foot left the cement...his outstretched hand touched her shoulder, and the light of her crest winked silently, instantly out as she lost her balance and started to fall, her eyes wide with fear-  
  
In the same split second, an explosion shattered the air around him, and he stumbled back, throwing up an arm instinctively to shield his face. When he lowered it, trees surrounded him on all sides. Before him lay a jeep on its side, blazing with leaping flames. Two human forms were silhouetted in stark black relief against the conflagration, one male and one female. The woman was running toward the jeep, trying to reach it, as the man chased after her, desperate to stop her.  
  
Yuki, he thought, trying to save the data we captured... A feeling of doom swelled in his stomach. The back of the jeep was still intact. That explosion couldn't have been the gas tank. It must have been the backup tank kept in a compartment near the hood...which meant...  
  
TK, Yuki, get out of there! The words formed in his throat, but he couldn't cry out, couldn't move, couldn't close his eyes. As he stared helpless at the scene before him, a second explosion engulfed the jeep in a roar of flame, throwing shrapnel into the air. The vehicle shattered, blowing molten chunks of steel and glass in all directions. Time seemed to slow, searing every detail of the scene into his mind.  
  
Yuki, caught in the edge of the blast, screamed as she was hurled to the ground by the shock wave; TK stumbled back, nearly falling as well, and then reeled as a chunk of scrap metal caught him full across the temple, snapping his head back with the force of the blow. He dropped to his knees, his hands covering his face. Yuki was curled on the ground, trying to shield herself from the flying debris; a piece of half-melted windshield shattered across her upraised arm, and fragments filled the air around her like deadly rain, glittering in the light of the explosion. She screamed again, cradling her arm, and in that moment a piece of metal struck her in the face, silencing her.  
  
It was over in less than ten seconds.  
  
The enemy slunk into the fringes of the wood, chuckling. Regaining the ability to move, he ran across the grass, ignoring the smoldering junk littering the ground, ignoring the twisted remains of what had once been the jeep, just trying to reach his friends.  
  
At the actual time, shock had kept him from fully realizing what it all meant; only that numbness had prevented him from panicking, allowing him to step into control, radio for help, check for vital signs, all on automatic drive while his mind wheeled in circles, struggling to make sense of what was happening...  
  
The dream left him no such 'comfort'. His heart hammered in his chest as he stopped between the two bodies; Yuki, motionless among the blackened rubble that was strewn along the ground, her golden curls singed and matted with red where they lay across her face, her arm in ribbons, her face torn; TK, kneeling, whimpering, shoulders hunched, only half conscious as he struggled to stay upright, his hands pressed tightly to his face but unable to hide the blood seeping from between his fingers to trickle threads of scarlet across his skin...  
  
His stomach rebelling, his throat tight, Tai swayed, longing to start running away and never stop until he died. Why had he escaped? Why had nothing touched him? Why had Fate left him with this guilt, to stand unhurt as his friends bled? His eyes turned to the forest, and he saw Sora standing at the edge of the trees, looking back at him with accusation in her eyes...  
  
"Sora, I couldn't help it! It wasn't my fault..."  
  
He froze; a whirring rumble was echoing from the sky, making his skin prickle with fear. There was no mistaking that helicopter-like rumble...  
  
"Sora, look out! Run! Sora..."  
  
She bowed her head.  
  
"I'm sorry, Tai..."  
  
He struggled to reach her, but he couldn't move in the suddenly waist-high grass. Behind him, a roar caused him to spin around; an Ogremon with club raised snarled down at him, bringing the bulky weapon down with a brutal strength. Sora's voice echoed in his ears as he stumbled back and fell down an endless hole that opened in the earth, black and bottomless.  
  
"I'm sorry...I have to go...I'm sorry..."  
  
"SORA!"  
  
  
  
Tai sat bolt upright in bed, sweating and gasping for air as he kicked his covers away. Slowly, he let the nightmare fade, trying to breathe steadily and deeply. When his heartbeat was normal again, he reached over to flick on the bedside lamp, sighing with relief as the light illuminated his room and chased the fragmented shadows into the corners. Somehow, he didn't feel like going back to sleep. His sweat-soaked sheets weren't helping, either. Sliding out of bed, he decided to go for a drink of water.  
  
"Funny," he murmured, opening the door to the hallway and walking quietly into the bathroom. "I haven't had a nightmare about that accident in months. I wonder what set it off...and why would Sora be in it?" He splashed water on his face, shivered, and dried off with a towel. "That's the last time I sleep in my clothes," he muttered, looking down at the rumpled 'smartsuit' he wore.   
  
Then a soft sound caught his ear, coming from the open bathroom window. He frowned, turning his head to look outside. That was impossible...he was awake now!  
  
The sound became louder. A soft, whirring rumble, like dozens of helicopter blades...  
  
Tai's breath caught in his throat.  
  
"Oh, shit," he whispered, and tore out of the bathroom, heading for the living room and the telephone.  
  
As he reached the doorway, he stopped dead.  
  
Sora's bed was empty.  
  
His stomach turning inside out, Tai stared at the neatly made blankets. A slip of paper lay on the pillow, and he picked it up, his hands shaking, and slowly unfolded it...  
  
  
Dear Tai-  
  
I can't put into words how hard this is...it's probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I know you don't deserve to have this happen to you, but I can't stay here...  
  
  
"No..." Tai whispered, his eyesight blurring with tears before he could finish the note. His throat closed, and it was hard to speak... Suddenly, he crumpled the paper in his fist, whirling away from the empty Hide-a-bed. "Dammit! NO!" he yelled, his voice hoarse, and threw the note across the room. It refused to be thrown; instead, it fluttered silently to the floor at his feet, and he gazed at it, his head spinning...  
  
The helicopter sound had grown louder, and Tai suddenly realized the full situation. If Sora was out there with those things...  
  
Tai bolted to the bed, touching the pillow. It was still warm. He swallowed and slowly raised his head to look out the window, out over the courtyard. The main gate stood tall and firm, and at its foot a slender figure was making her way toward it...  
  
"Sora..." he whispered. He could still catch her, still warn her-  
  
His thoughts froze as the rumbling grew suddenly much louder, and a strange, insectlike shape began to appear, rising from the far side of the gate to hover above the wall...  
  
Then another...  
  
Then dozens...  
  
"SORA!" Tai yelled. She froze, and whirled to look back at the empty courtyard...  
  
And in that moment, the first Swoopmon dove over the wall and began to head straight for her. She turned, saw it, and let out a scream, fleeing back toward the complex buildings with the Digimon in hot pursuit. Tai swore and did a dive of his own for the telephone, dialing Command.  
  
Lights began to come on all over the complex as people were shaken out of their beds by friends or officers, stumbling and half-awake as they rushed to their posts.  
  
Joe ran down a hallway to his med wing, pulling on his coat...  
  
Missy sat up with a curse as her roommate began to scream hysterically...  
  
The first explosion went off when a Swoopmon dropped a Stinger Bomb attack on the Textiles building...  
  
TK nearly ran into the doorframe as he stumbled into Kari's room, the house shaking from the nearby bombing...  
  
Davis fumbled for his boots as the rest of the guys in his Defense Team dorm did the same, scrambling for battle...  
  
Yukiko woke up in a cold sweat, the sound of further bombing dredging up terrible memories, her scars aching dully...  
  
And in a dark room that held the shielding controls for the HQ, a pair of watery gray eyes narrowed.  
  
"It's begun..."  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 11: Red Sky By Morning  
  
(AN) That's more like it, folks! (5 reviews!) Keep this up, and you might just get to find out what exactly has 'begun' sometime in the next few days! *hint hint*  
  
Major suspense coming up! Also, a few more examples of the second reason why this fic is rated PG-13! (The first is profanity, the second...well, you'll find out.) Read at your own risk, but be warned...there are surprises on the way, and not all of them are pleasant. Keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter of Project: Moment! -Bandit O_o 


	12. Red Sky By Morning

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 11- Red Sky By Morning*~  
  
Sora's breath tore in her throat as she ran for her life, the sound of the Swoopmon's wings roaring behind her. Crowds of people were beginning to flood the courtyard, and the area rang with shouts and explosions. A bomb went off nearby, throwing Sora off her feet and the Swoopmon almost out of the air. Sora quickly recovered from the impact of the fall, but the Digimon was already regaining its balance, before she could stumble to her feet...  
  
Suddenly, a nearby tower came to life, spewing fire at the Digimon from a gun turret that she hadn't seen before. The creature disappeared in a blinding flash of light. Sora gasped in shock, trying to comprehend this sudden change in plans. *What the...?*  
  
A familiar face appeared in the crowd, and Sora leapt to her feet, grabbing Geri's sleeve.  
  
"You! What the hell is going on?!"  
  
Geri spat at her, and she let go of him with a startled cry, reaching up to wipe saliva from her cheek. The ratty little man disappeared into the crowd, just as another explosion colored the sky red and made the people around them scream and mill about, covering his escape.  
  
Sora simply stood staring at her hand.  
  
What was on it was not spit. It was slimy, and smelled bad. And...it was gray.  
  
"What the...?"  
  
Repulsed, she wiped her hand on the grass; whatever it was, it didn't seem harmful. Just disgusting.  
  
"What is that guy?" she whispered, staring horrified in the direction he'd gone...  
  
  
  
"Please, Joe?"  
  
"For the fifth and final time, Missy, no!" Joe snapped, trying to concentrate on getting his kit in order. Another blast rocked the building, and he groaned. "There's a good fifty more invalids," he muttered, and reached for extra antiseptic.  
  
"Oh, come on!" Missy pleaded, holding on to his sleeve. "I have the training, you know I do! They need all the help they can get out there, and I can shoot just as well as anybody! Please let me, Joe!"  
  
"You're a child!" he said sharply, a bit more sharply than he meant to. "You can't go out into that battle!"  
  
"What, so I should stay here and wait to be blown to bits like a duck in a bucket?" Missy griped. "I am not a child, Joe!"  
  
"You're eighteen!" Joe shot back, rummaging through a drawer for tourniquets.  
  
"I'm a legal adult," Missy insisted. "Not a baby! What, you want proof? Fine!"  
  
With that, she reeled off a string of words that would have peeled paint. As the air seemed to turn blue around her, Joe and several nearby medics turned slowly to goggle at the diminutive teenager. Winding up her monologue, Missy shot Joe a grin.  
  
"See?"  
  
The box of tourniquets Joe held hit the floor with a thump.  
  
"I think you'd better let her go, Joe," a nearby nurse said with a grin. "If she sticks around, half our patients are going to die of shock."  
  
"I'm about to do a little of that myself," Joe murmured. "All right, go...but when this is over, you are telling me who taught you those words so I can do something drastic to them."  
  
"Can do," Missy said with a grin. "In fact, I learned this one from you, the time TK had his accident." She opened her mouth, and Joe blanched and clamped a hand over it.  
  
"I don't think these nice people need to hear that one again," he hissed. Missy nodded, her eyes dancing, and pulled away to dart out the door.  
  
Joe sighed and bent to pick up the tourniquets. "It's going to be a long night..."  
  
  
  
Tai pounded down the stairs, without the patience to wait for the elevator. He had to reach her! Before...  
  
"Don't think about it," he said quickly to himself. "Just do it!"  
  
The doorway to the courtyard loomed ahead of him. He plunged through it; it had been left open for convenience's sake, and to try and keep the glasstic from shattering under the pressure of the explosions. Then he hesitated, looking around for some cue as to what to do next.  
  
The courtyard was lit red from the many fires blazing around it; people were running everywhere, some purposefully, some in a panic, many screaming with fright Above them, Swoopmon arced and dove, firing rapid-fire bursts of deadly light from their under-curled tail guns or dropping more Stinger Bombs. Nearby, one of the Digimon lay dead, half its tail blown away by a defensive turret. Tai winced and started off into the melee, heading for where he'd last seen Sora...  
  
"Sora! Sora!"  
  
Sora looked up and spotted a familiar young face, streaked with tears and soot. It took her a minute to remember who it belonged to.  
  
"Pam? What are you doing out here?"  
  
"I can't find DC!" the little girl wailed, running toward her. "She ran away when the bombing started, and now she's gone!"  
  
Sora winced. Likelier than not, the dog was gone for good.  
  
"Pam, honey, we can't look for DC now," she said hurriedly, taking the twelve-year-old's hand and beginning to run toward the door she'd come out of. It seemed so much farther away now, with all these people between them and it...  
  
A building nearby blew up with an ear-shattering boom, sending debris flying. Sora quickly threw her arms around Pam, shielding her. A bit of brick flew past, cutting her sleeve. A trickle of blood began, but then the cloth flexed and wove back together, helping to stop the bleeding in the process. The stain flickered and faded. Sora shuddered, as Pam began to cry.  
  
*Creepy... I have got to find Tai!*  
  
  
  
Missy ran down a hallway and into a cluster of gunner's turrets; there were quite a few empty ones, as many gunners had been lost in the first moments of the attack, before they could reach these armored bubbles. She hurried down a short, tube-shaped glasstic hallway and into the round dome of the turret itself, sliding into the seat and pulling on her headset. Then she grabbed the twin joystick-like controls, locking them into one firing pattern with a quick press of a button and bracing herself as the headset visor automatically slid down over her eyes and the seat lifted off of the floor, balancing in the middle of the glasstic globe.  
  
"Right...just like Star Wars," she muttered, and looked for a target. The visor locked in on one for her, and she thumbed the controls, sending a rain of fire after the hovering Swoopmon, which dodged and sped away unscathed. "Damn!" she exclaimed, slamming a fist into the control panel, and quickly targeted another Swoopmon as it shot past her turret. This time her fire connected, and the Swoopmon exploded in a magnificent blaze of light.  
  
"Yes! Who's the best? Who's your mama?" Missy cheered, pumping a fist. In her pause, another pair of Swoopmon saw that the turret had become active and flew toward her.  
  
"Time to join the party, huh, boys?" she muttered, and reached for her controls again, assigning a set of guns to each so that they could fire independently. Then she took a deep breath and gave up the last edges of her concentration to staying alive...  
  
  
  
As Davis ran toward his station, he was suddenly stopped as a frantic-looking blond girl ran in front of him, grabbing his jacket sleeve.  
  
"What's happening?" she pleaded, her voice high with fear, her eyes wild and terrified. Davis blinked, dazed by too many things happening at once.  
  
"What?"  
  
"What's going on?!" she said, her eyes beginning to fill with tears. "Please, tell me!"  
  
Davis stared at her, and suddenly noticed the long pink scar down the side of her face. His mind clicked.  
  
"Hey...you're that girl that used to follow Tai around," he said, the light dawning. Yukiko nodded, still frantic.  
  
"I'm Yuki," she choked. "Please..."  
  
"We're being attacked," Davis said quickly. "Swoopmon, and possibly others. There've been sightings..."  
  
"Oh, god," Yuki murmured, leaning suddenly against the wall. She looked like she might be sick, or faint. Davis quickly caught her elbow, supporting her.  
  
"What is it?" he said, and then winced. Of course...Tai had told him that it had been Swoopmon that blew up that jeep, along with an escort of Apemon and a feral Kuwagamon or two...  
  
"Nothing," Yuki said faintly, reaching up to unconsciously touch the vicious scar where it snaked across her skin. "I...it's nothing..."  
  
Making a quick decision, Davis took a deep breath.  
  
"I have to get to my station," he said, shooting a glance over his shoulder. A nearby window threw flame-colored light on the corridor wall. "But if you want," he added, as Yuki blanched at the thought of being left alone, "you can come with me. Is that okay?"  
  
Yuki felt dizzy with fear...but fears have to be faced.  
  
"Where is it?"  
  
"Across the courtyard a ways...not too far," Davis said. Yuki nodded resolutely.  
  
"Sure," she said, lifting her head with determination suddenly burning in her eyes again. "C'mon, let's go."  
  
"Right," Davis said, and they started off...  
  
  
  
TK and Kari were huddled in their doorway, watching the night unfold...well, Kari was. TK was listening, and shuddering at the sounds he heard. Explosions, screams, the hammering sound of Swoopmon wings, the pounding of running feet...  
  
"We can't stay here," Kari said tensely "It's too unprotected. We have to get to the complex, and far inside of it...and fast!"  
  
"But-" TK began. Kari cut him off.  
  
"You can't fight, TK, and I don't know how! We can't do anything but get to safety, and the sooner we do that, the better."  
  
He couldn't argue; she was right, however much he hated to admit it.  
  
"God, I wish I could *see*," he muttered, but followed her off of the porch and into the crowd, holding tightly to her hand...  
  
  
  
Sora ran across the pavement, half-carrying, half-dragging the terrified Pam. She didn't see Tai anywhere, and had gotten turned around in the crush so that she wasn't sure where she was anymore. The courtyard looked by now like something from a nightmare. As they passed a burning building, Pam stumbled and fell, crying out. Sora immediately dropped to her knees next to her.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm...fine..." Pam whimpered, her eyes huge, and then began to cry again. "Sora!" she wailed, hugging the older girl tightly. "Sora, I'm so scared...and I don't know what happened to my family...and I'm all alone!"  
  
Sora swallowed. "Pam, sweetie, it's okay," she said tenderly, trying to keep a lookout for approaching Swoopmon as she comforted the girl, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "Your family's fine, and they love you. You're never alone when you've got love..."  
  
Pam looked up at her with wondering eyes.  
  
"Really?" she sniffed. Sora nodded.  
  
"Really," she assured her. Pam smiled tremulously, and began to get up...  
  
The sound of a dog's frenzied barking filled the air.  
  
"DC!" Pam shrieked, and turned to see her beloved dog, only a few meters away. The burning building they'd passed had been half destroyed by a Stinger Bomb; it looked like it had been an ammo depot, probably a major target. The yellow mutt was trapped in the wreckage of a metal shelving set, her hind leg twisted and caught in the debris. The young girl let out a happy cry, twisting out of Sora's grasp.  
  
"Pam, no!" Sora shouted, trying to grab her, but she was too late. Pam slipped through her fingertips and plunged into the ruined building, running to throw her arms around the dog's neck as it barked frantically and tried to lick her face. Sora let out a cry of frustrated fear.  
  
"DC, you're okay!"  
  
"Pam, leave the dog! Get out of there!"  
  
Pam looked up, her face set in childish resolution "No!" she shrieked. "DC..."  
  
Sora felt her gorge rising. There was danger coming, big danger...she could feel it...  
  
"I'm getting help!" she yelled, and turned to run. She had to find someone who could drag the girl out of there!  
  
Before she'd gone twelve feet, there was a rumble in the sky above. Sora looked over her shoulder and saw a Swoopmon approaching fast. Something dropped from it...  
  
"PAM!" she screamed. The twelve-year-old let out a wail of terror and ducked, wrapping her head in her arms as DC howled...  
  
The explosion was spectacular and deafening. Sora was blown backwards a good ten feet, landing with a cry as the wind was knocked out of her. As her ears rang, the Swoopmon moved on, leaving a crater of ashes and dust behind it.  
  
Sora slowly raised her head. "Pam..." she whispered, as tears began to run silently down her cheeks.  
  
The depot was gone.  
  
  
  
Tai burst into the Quonset, looking frantically around. He immediately spotted Lily, who was working her way along a line of groaning injured near the bar, cleaning wounds. The Quonset had been transformed into a sort of field hospital; Tai recognized several of his co-workers from the med ward also making their way among the rows and rows of victims that were lined up on tables and the dance floor.  
  
Against one wall, near the stage, unmoving bodies were stacked like firewood. Not all of them looked to be in one piece. The air smelled of smoke and charred metal and the heavy burnt-popcorn stink of melted glasstic from outside, but the strongest smell was the coppery, nose-itching aroma of blood.  
  
"Lily!"  
  
The barkeep looked up, startled. Her eyes were tired, and her bright hair stuck to her face and neck in bedraggled strands. She reached up to push it away and left a crimson smudge across her face.  
  
"Taichi? What're y'all doing here?"  
  
Picking his way hurriedly through rows of wounded, some only doubtfully alive, Tai reached her side, his face haunted.  
  
"Have you seen Sora?"  
  
"What, that nice gal I served the pineapple malt to?" Lily said after a moment's tired thought. "No, sugar, she's not here. I'm sorry."  
  
Tai sighed, not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. "It's all right. I'll just...Lily, what are you *doing*?"  
  
Lily, coming toward him, seemed to have stumbled, then let out a shriek and whirled to grab a nearby barstool. She began beating at the thin air between them with all her strength. Tai might have thought she'd snapped, if it hadn't been clear from the way the barstool moved that there was something there to be beaten...  
  
Something completely invisible.  
  
"Lily, what's going on?!"  
  
"Shoot it! Shoot it!" she screamed, and let out another shriek, stumbling again. Tai quickly looked down and guessed that whatever-it-was had grabbed her ankle. Lily brought the stool down with a crack that echoed through the Quonset, and there was a wet thump of something large and squishy collapsing. A glass that had been lying on its side near Lily's feet shattered, as if crushed. "Shoot-ack!"  
  
Having turned away to get help, Tai whirled back around to see Lily being dragged backwards toward the bar, doubtless by another something. She was making faint gagging noises, and her face was beginning to turn blue as she clawed at something around her neck.  
  
"It's choking her!" Tai shouted, wishing to high heaven he had his gun. "Somebody help!" He didn't dare go closer without a weapon; he would be no help to Lily if one of those things got him, too. Tai bit his lip, longing to do *something*! Lily was strangling; she didn't have much time-  
  
A shot rang out, making Tai jump, and Lily collapsed to her hands and knees, gasping for breath. Behind her there was a spray of gray-blue liquid and another wet thump. Slowly, as Tai stared at the place where the oddly colored blood was now spreading into a puddle, a spongy gray shape appeared, like a mass of oily clay the size of a washing machine.  
  
"What *is* that thing?" Tai whispered, stunned and revolted.  
  
"A Morphmon," came a voice from behind him, and he turned to see a short, stocky woman with an orange crew cut and a stern face striding toward him, holstering her gun. "They're the ultimate spies, and matchless as assassins. I've seen them once before. This one's dead," she added, giving the one she'd shot a derisive kick. It squelched. "They only revert to their true forms when they've expired. Your friend seems to have stunned the other one."  
  
Tai nudged the still-invisible one with his foot, and grimaced. It was not pleasant to feel something where his eyes plainly told him there was nothing but air.  
  
"Assassins?" he said, confused. "What did they want with Lily?"  
  
"Nothing, I'd wager," the woman said. "They were probably sent in to finish off some of these people; if they rolled over one of these folks, they'd suffocate in minutes, and the medics would probably think they'd died of their wounds and not suspect murder until a good number of victims were already dead. Most of these folks are too weak to cry out for help." She shook her head, plainly disgusted. "Picking off the wounded...it's nice to be reassured that there's a reason we're fighting these buggers. We humans may not be perfect, but these guys are filth."  
  
"But why Lily?" Tai murmured, shooting a worried look at the barkeep. She was sitting up by now, rubbing at her throat and wincing, but apparently not too much the worse for wear. The woman shrugged.  
  
"I doubt they intended to go after a healthy victim. She probably just bumped into one by mistake. They're programmed to kill, and they're not so stupid they'd let someone live who'd discovered them. It's lucky you were here..."  
  
Her voice trailed off. The woman studied the 'empty' spot where the unconscious Morphmon lay for a moment, then in one swift motion drew her gun and fired a shot through it. There was a gurgling moan and more blood, and then that Morphmon faded into view as well.  
  
Tai jumped in surprise, and glared at her. "What do you think you're doing? We could have interrogated it, or...or something!"  
  
The woman shrugged. "They're impossible to keep prisoner. They change shape at will; it's like trying to grab a handful of air. And they're not smart enough to recognize pain as a motivator...even if they could talk, which they can't." She shook her head. "These aren't a natural species, they're a genetic experiment. A very successful one, I have to admit."  
  
"Command won't like it!" Tai spat, still angry. The woman gave him a long, studying look.  
  
"Don't throw around the names of your superiors, Kamiya," she said coolly. "I *am* Command. Clara MacBeth, senior officer in charge of Intelligence." She stuck out a hand to shake, with a dry smile. "A friend of yours is one of my top men. Izumi Koushiro-a real whiz kid, that one. He's one of the top three programmers in my entire department, with a good chance at becoming number one...with some practice. He's on Communications Team presently, unless I'm going senile."  
  
Tai stared.  
  
"You're Command? I don't remember seeing you at the meetings..."  
  
"I'm the one who attends via comm," MacBeth said with a grin. "I'm far too busy to have time for attending bothersome things like meetings in person. So, are you going to shake my hand or just stand there with your jaw dislocated?"  
  
Tai snapped his mouth shut, looking sheepish, and shook her hand.  
  
"You'll be searching for your friend Takenouchi?" MacBeth said. Tai frowned.  
  
"How did you-"  
  
"I'm in charge of Intelligence," MacBeth dryly reminded him. "It pays to be on top of things...and by 'things' I mean 'everything'. Go on, then. I saw her on my way over; she was heading toward Ammunition Depot Y-73, with a little girl in tow. I'll take care of your friend here," she added, moving toward Lily.  
  
"Are you sure?" Tai asked, already raring to go but hesitant to leave without permission.  
  
"Head out, soldier," MacBeth said with a firm nod and a tight grin. "Official orders." Her wristcomm beeped, and she looked down at it and grimaced. "And you might want to step on it," she said darkly. "According to my sources, Ammo Depot Y-73 just got blown to hell."  
  
Tai ran.  
  
  
  
Missy fired off another string of ammo and whooped as a pair of Swoopmon blew into shrapnel. The insect Digimon were like enormous craneflies, their abdomens bloated into globelike ammo wells big enough to hold a person, their tails curled under their bellies and mounted at the tip with quad-guns that spat coherent green light. They were mostly metal, and easy to blow up; you just had to hit the ammo well, and they went off like Roman candles.  
  
A sound behind her made Missy freeze, and she let her guns fall silent, turning her chair to look into the tube-shaped hallway.  
  
Geri stood there, a darkly pleased look on his face.  
  
"Hello, Missy," he said with an unpleasant smile. "I told your cousin you'd pay for your insolence."  
  
Missy stared at him. "My insolence? I'll give you insolence, you filthy little..." Her voice trailed off. "What are you doing just wandering around? Why aren't you helping? And...what do you mean, we'd 'pay'?"  
  
Geri grinned.  
  
"Somebody had to shut down the shields," he said, sounding quite pleased with himself. "Say goodbye to the Project, Misube."  
  
"You...you..." Missy sputtered, for once in her life unable to come up with a word strong enough for the situation. "You filth-sucking, miserable..."  
  
Geri snorted. "Speechless, I see. Enjoy your little games, and your little friends, while they last. It won't be long now..."  
  
Missy snapped. Launching herself from her seat with a wordless shriek of rage, she slammed her fist into the ratty little man with all her might. He squawked and stumbled out of the turret, hitting the wall out in the hallway with a smack as Missy landed a kick in the middle of his chest. Gasping, he limped across the hallway toward the door out, trying weakly to escape. Missy followed him at a close distance, like a furious cat playing with a mouse, her fists raised to attack again as rage burned in her heart...  
  
  
  
"Keep going!" Davis yelled over the sound of gunfire as he and Yuki ducked around a corner. "We're almost there..."  
  
She caught her breath, successfully fighting down her panic.  
  
"We're making it!" she gasped, half unbelieving. A Swoopmon buzzed overhead, and she flattened against the wall, Davis following suit next to her. It passed, and they kept going.  
  
"Just across this square," Davis gasped, pulling her by the hand. He had assumed the role of leader on the short journey, but Yukiko was holding her own with surprising strength.  
  
*Of course, she's on Strike Team,* he thought. *It's no wonder she's...* His thoughts froze as he saw a silver projectile shooting toward them. *A Stinger Bomb!*  
  
"Yuki, duck!" he yelled, and shoved her aside. They fell to the ground, Davis shielding them both. The Stinger Bomb shot overhead, and plowed into a building several meters away, making the ground roll beneath them with the detonation. They lay there for a minute, listening to the crackle of the newest fire among many, unhurt but stunned. Then Yuki opened her tightly closed eyes, staring up at Davis.  
  
"You saved my life..." she whispered. He shrugged, sitting up.  
  
"Don't mention it...I saved mine, too, remember? C'mon, we've got to get inside before more of those things come our way." He got to his feet and gave her a hand up, and they ran into the building nearby.  
  
  
  
Pushing through a cluster of shouting medics, Tai spotted a form curled up on the ground near a smoldering wreck of a building. He let out a cry of instant recognition, and shoved past a group of running men to fall to his knees next to her.  
  
"Sora! Sora, are you okay?" he said quickly, his chest tight. "Say something!"  
  
She stirred, looking up at him with tears pouring down her face.  
  
"Tai..." she whispered, and choked back a sob.  
  
"Sora, what is it?" Tai said, wiping her cheeks. She couldn't answer. He shook his head. "Stupid question..." A hum-buzz caught his ear, and he looked up to see a trio of Swoopmon looping down toward them.   
  
"Oh, shit! C'mon!" he said, leaping to his feet and grabbing her hand. Sora jumped up, too, shaking tears from her face, and followed him at a shaky run. The Stingmon came closer and closer, as more and more people joined their desperate flight.  
  
Sora stumbled, half-blinded with tears, but Tai caught her and kept her going, literally dragging her along until she got her feet under her again. She gasped and panted, unused to running so fast, for so long.  
  
"Hang in there," Tai said in her ear, trying to be encouraging. "Sora, come on...you can make it, just run a little farther and we'll be at the complex doors, come on...I know you can do it!"  
  
Sora looked up at him, her legs suddenly feeling stronger, her face tearstained and dirty and beautiful as anything.  
  
"Tai..." she whispered, her eyes shining.  
  
"Sora," he said in return, and the whispered names said it all.  
  
Then the man on their left jostled roughly into Sora, throwing her feet from under her. Tai lost his grip on her arm, shouting in horror as she fell beneath the feet of the fleeing crowd. She came back into view as they passed her by, struggling to get back to her feet as the Swoopmon came ever closer...  
  
Yelling her name, Tai tried to backpedal, but the crowd was too closely packed now, carrying him along, dragging him away. He swore viciously, shoving and pushing the people around him as he fought to reach her.  
  
Sora got to her feet, began to run-  
  
And then, they were upon her. Time seemed to slow as Tai watched, still fighting the mob...  
  
The lead Swoopmon took aim, fired...  
  
A small silver-white projectile shot from the thing's tail, unlike anything Tai had ever seen, and sped toward Sora, who was still running and didn't see it...she was so close that he could see the fear in her eyes as the projectile hit her between the shoulder blades in a spray of blood, with a sound like a tent stake punching into wet sand. She went down instantly, her legs buckling beneath her, hitting the ground with a thud that seemed to strike Tai like a physical blow. He let out a scream.  
  
"SORA!!!"  
  
And then the Swoopmon was over her, a door opening in its abdomen, picking up her inert form in its spindly legs and shooting up into the air. Tai watched in horror, along with the rest of the people in the frozen crowd.  
  
Another explosion almost drowned out the sound of Tai's heart breaking...  
  
  
  
Looking out the window, Geri grinned harshly.  
  
"I think you just lost one of your precious friends," he wheezed, his eyes alight. "The plan's finished now, you know. No matter what you do, you're all dead now..."  
  
Missy didn't understand this, but she understood the sight of Sora's body being spirited away perfectly well. She let out a hiss.  
  
"You monster!!!" she screamed, and leaped forward, putting all of her strength into a blow to his face that would have downed a Leomon. As it connected, there was a crunch of bone, and Geri reeled backward, hitting the glasstic window with a shattering crash and plunging down into the darkness, shrieking all the way.  
  
Missy stood exhausted in the hallway, breathing in gasps, her shoulders slumped, arms hanging limp at her sides.  
  
"There," she whispered, gazing out the broken window at the beginnings of a blood-red sunrise. *Red sky by morning, sailors take warning,* she thought, and spat scornfully out the window after the vanished man.  
  
"It's a little late for that," she muttered, and turned to go to the med ward, her right hand cradled in her left arm.  
  
Behind her, the Swoopmon began to peel away, following their fellow into the sky to hover unmoving over the Project Headquarters...  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 12: Heartstrings  
  
(AN) So, got you worried? *grins* Stupid question, I know. But don't worry, you've been doing so well with your reviews that I'll try to have the next chapter up by this Sunday. (That's fast for me, as you've probably figured out by now.)  
  
Speaking of that, this fic is now indubitably my Most Reviewed Work! Not bad, ne? I have to tell you, that cheered me up. I've had the flu since yesterday, but logging on to a bunch of new reviews is definitely a big cheer-up! Arigatou gozaimasu, minna-san! (Thanks so much, everyone!) -Bandit O_o 


	13. Heartstrings

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 12- Heartstrings*~  
  
A soft buzz seeped into Sora's consciousness, and she stirred, her eyes flickering open. A curved silver wall greeted her eyes...  
  
She was floating, at the center of some sort of hollow, metallic sphere. Her head spun, and she didn't understand... Then she felt the strange, creeping sensation in her chest, and began to shudder violently. Something was happening. Something was...unfolding....  
  
The shuddering calmed, and the thing inside her was still. Dizzy and almost too exhausted to be frightened, she found herself gazing at the small lights that studded the chamber walls, all sending beams of silver-white light toward her aching chest. The pattern they lay in was familiar.  
  
It was almost like...  
  
She shook her head, wearily, and closed her eyes. She was too tired. So very tired...she needed to...rest...  
  
  
  
Tai stood staring up at the afternoon sky, his arms wrapped around himself as if he were cold, Joe silent beside him. A single Swoopmon hovered high above the complex. Other Swoopmon buzzed here and there around the complex, as though watching them, but this one simply hung in the air like a metallic North Star, unmoving and menacing.  
  
"It's been there all day," Joe said softly. Tai nodded; he didn't trust himself to speak. He hadn't trusted his voice, ever since he'd seen Sora...  
  
Seen her be...  
  
*Dammit!* he thought, shaking his head as the tears threatened to spill over again. *Why? Why now? Oh, god...*  
  
A soft voice spoke up behind them.  
  
"Tai?"  
  
He turned, to see Yuki standing there, Davis at her side. They looked tired and drawn; her hair hung limply in tangles around her face, and he had dried blood on his cheek. They held tightly to each other's hands, sharing the instinctive support of fellow disaster survivors; in the girl's other hand was a small, shiny cubical object.  
  
"Tai, there's a message coming in on the Command frequency," Yuki said, still just as softly but with urgency in her voice.  
  
He stared at her, uncomprehending.  
  
"It's for you," she said, handing him the videocomm. With a feeling of heavy apprehension, Tai pressed the Receive button, and a dark image blossomed before him, wreathed in shadows.  
  
"Taichi..."  
  
The voice was unfamiliar, but the malicious red eyes on the screen of the handheld videocomm were unmistakable.  
  
*The Xenophobe,* Tai thought, his heart darkening with hate. That filth had killed Sora! His fists clenched involuntarily, his fingernails biting into the skin of his palms, nearly drawing blood.  
  
"I believe my pets have something that belongs to you," the Xenophobe continued. Tai stared at the screen, choking on rage. It didn't seem to notice his fury, or perhaps simply ignored it. "And I believe you may...want it back."  
  
"What?!" Joe stammered, thrown. Tai was silent.  
  
"And what makes you think that?" he said after a moment, his voice cold and deceptively calm.  
  
"You should realize that already, Taichi," the Xenophobe said with a dark, syrupy chuckle. "I know you humans and your personal loyalties...of course you'll want her back. But then again, if you'd rather I simply killed her..."  
  
Tai's heart nearly stopped.  
  
"She's...she's alive?!" he whispered, feeling numb.  
  
" 'And kicking', as I believe your human speech pattern goes," it said with crystal-clear disdain. "Well? Decide quickly; my pet is growing impatient."  
  
Tai looked up at the sky to see that particular Swoopmon flying in quick, tight circles, as if champing at the bit to do something. He looked back at the screen, and swallowed hard.  
  
"Let her go!" he said hoarsely, his heart aching from too many switchbacks in the last few days. Here, not here, dead, not dead... He just wanted it all to stop! He needed to rest...  
  
And he needed Sora back.  
  
The flaming eyes in the shadows narrowed shrewdly. "You're sure?"  
  
"Positive," Tai rasped, too drained to play games.  
  
"Very well," the Xenophobe said, dry satisfaction filling its voice. "Enjoy your fate, human."  
  
The Swoopmon did a neat loop-the-loop to the ground and opened the door in its abdomen, spilling out a silent body onto the ground. Then it shot off into the air again, and disappeared over the horizon in an eyeblink. The rest of its species followed it.  
  
Tai dropped the videocomm and sprinted toward the spot, followed closely by Joe. Sora was still and pale, her eyes closed, but Joe grabbed her wrist and nodded.  
  
"She's alive, Tai. Her pulse is steady."  
  
Tai felt something loosen in his chest, and suddenly he could breathe again.  
  
"Oh, thank god," he whispered, and pulled her into his arms. She stirred, and opened her eyes.  
  
"Tai," she said, looking drained and frightened. She swallowed, licked dry lips, and coughed. "Tai," she repeated, "why did you do it?"  
  
"What?" he said, startled.  
  
Her hands clutched his shirtfront.  
  
"Tai," she said, her faint voice sounding on the breaking point from fear, "there's something inside me..."  
  
A terrible laugh came from the abandoned videocomm, and Yuki snatched it up, staring at the screen. The Xenophobe leered out at her.  
  
"I remember you, little one. How is your face?"  
  
Yuki choked, and Davis moved to stand protectively behind her.  
  
"Enjoy what we left of you," the evil thing sneered. "You've got twenty-four hours to live."  
  
"What?!" Davis snapped.  
  
Halfway across the courtyard, the sign over the Arena flared into life with a whine of machinery, showing 24:00:00 in blood-red numbers. There was a soft click, and it began to count down. Sora let out a gasp and jerked in Tai's arms.  
  
"What is it?" he said, alarmed. She looked up at him, her face pale as a ghost.  
  
Something inside her chest, next to her heart, had moved.  
  
"Oh, my god," she whispered, horrified.  
  
"What?!" Tai asked quickly.  
  
The Xenophobe smiled, white fangs flickering in the light from his eyes...  
  
"It's a bomb," he said.  
  
Yuki let out a cry and threw the videocomm to the ground as though it had become red-hot, as Davis shouted in alarm. Tai stared at the little machine in horror, and then looked back at Sora, who was huge-eyed with terror, hand over her heart. Joe sucked in his breath.  
  
"You have twenty-four hours," the voice continued from the comm. "I want to enjoy this to the fullest. Don't try to leave the complex; there are Morphmon outside, hidden around the walls. You'd be dead before you took a step."  
  
Yuki began to cry softly.  
  
"Isn't there anything we can do?!" Davis shouted.  
  
"Yes," the Xenophobe said, great pleasure in its voice.  
  
"What is it?!" Tai cried, desperate.  
  
The thing chuckled darkly.  
  
"You can kill the girl. Her heartbeat keeps the bomb ticking."  
  
There was silence in the courtyard. Another chuckle came from the videocomm.  
  
"Have fun," the Xenophobe said, and the comm switched off.  
  
  
  
"Tai, you have to do it!"  
  
Tai leaned wearily on the outer wall of one of the complex buildings, resting his cheek against the cool, rough synthstone. His head hurt, and his heart was aching. *I'm tired of being the one people look to,* he thought bleakly. *I'm tired of leading, I'm tired of danger, I'm tired of making life-or-death decisions...  
  
*How can they expect me to decide...this?*  
  
"No," he said, his voice rough from too much shouting...too much crying...  
  
"Tai, please," Sora said, her face pale as milk, but set resolutely. She'd been arguing with him for the last hour, trying to make him see. All these people were trapped here, and...well, the last thing she wanted to do was die, but she was dead either way! He had to understand that! He just had to... "Please, do it... I can't stand knowing all these people are going to die because of me!"  
  
"Sora, I can't," he said, refusing to even think about it. "I can't!"  
  
"Yes, you can," she insisted. "No one else will listen to me-"  
  
"They shouldn't!" Tai shouted, whirling, and she saw that his face was tear-streaked. "What do you want me to do, just grab a pistol and fire?! I can't do what you're asking! It's crazy!"  
  
"It's the only way!" Sora wailed. "Tai, do you think I want to die?"  
  
"You're sure acting like it!" Tai bitterly snapped. How could she possibly do this? To come asking him to...to kill her? Or to find someone who would? He knew noone would obey; Sora was too important to destroy. Without her, there was no hope, no reason to keep trying...they were all doomed anyway, if she died here! But she wouldn't listen... "Don't you understand? We don't turn on our own kind here! No matter what! Sora-"  
  
"Tai, I'm sorry!" she cried, grabbing his arm-and he snapped, as the words of the letter and the echoes of his dream flared up into agony at her words.  
  
"Goddammit! NO!!" he yelled, and wrenched away, with a roughness he hadn't intended. Sora lost her footing with a cry, stumbled and fell at his feet. She didn't try to get up; her shoulders slumped, and she began to sob inconsolably into her hands. Tai felt his anger melt into shame, and he knelt beside her, sliding his arms around her and holding her close.  
  
"Tai..." she whispered, opening her eyes at his touch, still crying. "I can't let you throw away your world for me."  
  
"Oh, Sora," he sadly said, looking at her with tired chocolate-brown eyes. "Don't you understand? You are my world..."  
  
And they cried together, there behind the last remaining ammo depot, as Tai rocked her in his arms...  
  
  
  
The sun was setting in another blaze of light as TK and Kari walked quietly through the shattered courtyard, the young woman helping her companion over and around heaps of wreckage and blasted synthstone.  
  
"The sunset's really bright," Kari said softly, holding tightly to TK's arm as they made their way through an area littered with gravelly chunks of stone. "I think that's supposed to be good luck..."  
  
TK sighed. "It's the explosions," he said. "They throw dust into the air, and it makes the sunset redder."  
  
Kari stared at him, stopping. "TK?" she said. He shook his head.  
  
"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I know you're trying to help. You're always trying to help me, I know you are, and it's great, but...unless you know how to turn off that bomb without killing Sora, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do this time."  
  
"Command is working on it," Kari said, but TK bowed his head.  
  
"Command isn't superhuman," he sighed. "And these things are. Kari, unless there's some kind of miracle, that's the last sunset we're going to see. Or...you, anyway." He swallowed, and there was a long pause before he spoke again, haltingly, as though exposing a part of his soul to her that he rarely shared with anyone. "Sometimes, I'm afraid I'm forgetting things. Like what a sunset looks like, or the way light plays on water, or the exact color of your eyes..." He fell silent for a moment. "That's what hurts the most. Forgetting you."  
  
"TK, you'll never forget me," Kari said, sliding an arm tenderly around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder. "My eyes don't matter in the long run. It's me that cares about you."  
  
"But I can't take care of you," he said bitterly. "I'm forever stuck on your good graces. Sometimes I feel so...helpless..."  
  
Kari winced. He sounded more than helpless. He sounded hopeless, and when TK was in that bad of shape, you knew things were beyond serious.  
  
"You don't have to take care of me," she told him, brushing a strand of hair out of his clouded eyes. "I'm fine, TK...and who knows? Joe's been working on something to fix your sight; maybe someday-"  
  
"But we don't have someday," TK said, as she gazed up at the clock before them with his arm around her shoulders.  
  
21:52:47.  
  
"We've only got now..."  
  
  
  
Night came to the Project. Around the buildings that remained, those that still had electricity began to turn off the lights, settling down for a short, uneasy rest. Sora and Tai made their way home from the main medical wing, after a series of scans and a weary prognosis by Joe and his compatriots.  
  
The bomb was a tiny thing, insect-like in shape, and had probably been in the strange projectile that hit her. It had wrapped miniscule arms around her carotid artery, the largest one in her body, leading directly to her heart, and extended dozens of little stings into the artery wall to stay in place. To remove it might easily start a flow of blood that would be impossible to stop, and would kill in seconds. Even trying to reach it could have that effect, the area was so tender from its original entry. Sora had described what she'd seen inside the Swoopmon, but they hadn't been able to figure out its significance.  
  
"What I don't understand," Joe had said, rubbing his temples, "is how they healed the wound up so well. Nothing we've seen so far has had that effect on human tissue, or anything even remotely close to that kind of regenerative power. It's like they just instantly re-grew the damaged tissue...or if not instantly, then insanely quickly. It makes no sense..."  
  
*Nothing makes sense anymore,* Sora thought with a sigh, as she followed Tai silently down the hallway. Had it really been just five days since she'd last seen Mimi and the others? It felt like five years. Sora was too tired to think, too tired to do anything but put one foot in front of the other. She shook her head, and kept going.  
  
It was all she could do.  
  
  
  
Yuki lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling of her shared room. Once shared room; the other bed was cold and empty, still unmade from when its former occupant had left it for the last time. Yuki hadn't known the girl well, but any loss hurt...  
  
*She wasn't even on a military Team,* Yuki thought sadly. *She worked in Nutrition... I wonder if Kari knew her?* Her thoughts were random, and wandered like an abused animal trying to find a place to lie down where it wouldn't be kicked to its feet again. Such a place was hard to find. Everything she thought of seemed to lash out at her. The Quonset...tattered, and stinking with blood from the victims stacked there. Tai...sad, frightened, about to lose the person he cared most about, one way or another. The Arena...silently ticking down their time left to live on the clock that so many people had once stood urging to hurry up and start their game...  
  
Davis.  
  
A smile flickered for a split second on Yuki's exhausted face. Davis was...well, he was something, that was for sure. For a moment, she wished that she could have lived long enough to know him better. She wondered how she'd never noticed him before.  
  
*I was too wrapped up in Tai to see straight,* she remembered, with a shake of her head. *I'm not making that mistake again.* Then she realized that she wouldn't get the opportunity, and swallowed.  
  
She hadn't been to church since she'd joined the Project, but now was as good a time as any.  
  
"Dear Lord," she whispered into the empty silence of the room. "Please, give us another chance..."  
  
  
  
Taichi Kamiya couldn't sleep.  
  
He stared at the ceiling of his room, the stars pooling cold silver light across his blankets. Tai felt cold inside, and powerless, and very, very afraid. He hated feeling that way, but even that hate was nothing but another emotion on top of all the others that were tearing him apart from the inside out.  
  
*From the inside out...that's how they're going to destroy us all,* he thought, shuddering at the many ways that could be taken...and then feeling even colder as he thought of the most literal way. *Sora...*  
  
He was going to lose her. And he couldn't do a thing about it.  
  
Tai let out a pained sound and rolled over, slamming a fist into his pillow. It felt good, and he did it again, and again, making the bed shake as he rained blows on the innocent thing, letting out his anger and frustration and pain. He finally realized that he might wake Sora up, and fell silent, collapsing onto the pillow. He might have cried again, but he'd done that too much lately. His eyes were drained dry, and it hurt more that way, to be unable to spill out his excess feelings in a cleansing stream of tears... This was a sort of bottling-up, and it ached in his eyes and his heart as he lay there, trying not to think about the day to come.  
  
The day they would have to decide.  
  
The day she was doomed...  
  
It was too much. Tai cried out, and sat up, flinging his pillow at the wall.  
  
There was a soft sound from outside as it hit, and he heard the Hide-a-bed move.  
  
"Tai?"  
  
He winced. He'd screwed things up again...now she was awake, and he'd have to talk to her again, to see her. It was all he'd ever wanted, but it hurt so much to look at her now and know what was inside of her, to know she'd be gone in the space of a day...  
  
He got up and went to the doorway, looking out into the hall. Sora stood at the far end of it, bathed in silver moonlight and dressed in an old T-shirt and shorts of his. They were too big, and made her look small and fragile as she wavered there, her face haunted.  
  
"I'm sorry," Tai said, quickly but softly. "I woke you up, didn't I?"  
  
"I haven't slept all night," Sora whispered. "I couldn't..." She swallowed, swaying on her feet, and Tai took a step forward, lifting his arms slightly, as if to catch her if she fell.  
  
"I..." he whispered, his voice trailing off painfully.  
  
"Oh, Tai!" she cried suddenly, her eyes huge and terrified, her voice strained. "I feel like I'm standing at the edge of a cliff, and I can feel the wind behind me, trying to push me off..."  
  
Her voice broke, and she suddenly rushed down the hallway and into his arms, as tearless as he, but breathing in jerks as though her lungs were still trying to sob. He held her tightly, desperate to help her somehow, and in those moments her lips found his.   
  
This was not the warm kiss they'd shared earlier. It was a frightened, desperate, pleading thing that looked for satisfaction and found nothing, but in a strange, sad way it was comforting, and Tai found himself kissing back, just as desperate, trying to blot out the misery of the past day in the bitter-sweet sanctuary of her arms. He felt dizzy...  
  
It took him a moment to realize that he was halfway to the sofa, Sora's arms and legs wrapped tightly around him, his arms holding her just as tightly. He froze, breaking the kiss, and Sora whimpered, burying her face in his shoulder like a child seeking comfort.  
  
*That's exactly what she is,* Tai realized. *She's too afraid to know what she's doing, and...so was I.* He swallowed hard. *To do anything now would be to take advantage of her in the worst way, and I don't want to look back on our last night together and remember that. But...I can't leave her alone out here...* Tai took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then gently kissed Sora's cheek and turned, walking back to his room and carrying her carefully with him...  
  
Behind him, the door swung softly shut.  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 13: Never Say Die  
  
(AN) Enough bittersweet Taiora for you? ^_^ Incidentally, it was the events of this chapter that first appeared in the jumble of ideas that is my brain. The rest of the story is built from the beginnings I made into this chapter. I hope it was up to snuff...I'm very nitpicky about my heavy-emotion chapters. I spent several minutes rewriting one of the sentences in here... -_-*  
  
Anyway, I said I'd have this chapter out by Sunday...and here I am, right on schedule! Dudefish... To keep chapters coming in timely fashion, and to find out how our happy team is going to deal with this new obstacle, keep your eyes peeled for the next action-packed chapter of "Project: Moment"! *pauses for a moment to bask in the sparkly author-vibes* Yess! I have the power!! (Can you tell I'm hyped up from successful writing? ^_^) Oh, and...don't forget to review! -Bandit O_o 


	14. Never Say Die

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 13- Never Say Die*~  
  
Two hours before dawn, in his room by the medical ward, Joe suddenly sat up in bed.  
  
"Confluence beams!"  
  
"Cheez Whiz!" came a sleepy echo from across the room, and Joe frowned, squinting through the darkness at the futon on the floor where his cousin slept. One of the places hit by the bombing had been her dorm, and she'd decided to stay with him until it was rebuilt or she found somewhere else...and until her broken hand healed. Missy now sported a handsome fiberglass cast over her right hand and wrist. She'd refused to tell how it had gotten broken, but seemed very pleased with herself on that count.  
  
"Missy...?" he said uncertainly.  
  
"And a partridge in a pear tree!" she added, sitting up as well. When Joe's confused look only worsened, she shrugged, grinning. "I figured since you were having so much fun shouting out random things, I might as well join in. Or do you mind telling me what that little soliloquy meant?"  
  
Immediately coming out of his startled daze, Joe leapt from his bed and began to scramble into his smartsuit. Missy started to get up, too, but put her weight on her bad arm and winced, letting out a little cry.  
  
"Confluence beams," Joe repeated, more quietly, and threw her own suit to her from where she'd left it over the back of a chair. "I've been turning Sora's description of that thing's insides over and over in my head all night, and I just remembered a theory of James's that he's been working on..."  
  
"What, Dr. Haiser?" Missy said, still perplexed, and began to awkwardly change into her suit.  
  
"Exactly," Joe agreed, sealing the back of his and hurrying to the closet for his lab coat. "He kept going on about it at the last board meeting...he called it confluence beams, and it was a form of regenerative stimulation."  
  
"Which means...?"  
  
"Which means," Joe said, "that we may have a solution for our little problem after all. C'mon, Missy, we've got a lot of work to do."  
  
"Right on it," Missy said instantly, and started for the door and her boots.  
  
"Uh, Missy?" Joe said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You might want to seal your suit."  
  
"Oh, that...right..."  
  
  
  
A loud hammering sound woke Sora from a deep sleep. She murmured something unintelligible and stirred slightly, not wanting to wake up yet. There was a vague feeling of 'bad' at the back of her half-conscious mind, and she knew that if she let herself come fully awake, the bad would return and hurt her again.  
  
Something warm was at her back, and wrapped around her waist. She moved her fingers where they twined with it, and recognized hands, attached to arms, presumably attached to the person holding her close. She felt incredibly secure, curled in the arms of this warm person; more secure than she'd felt since her mother used to sit by her bed rubbing her back to help her sleep, when she was a little girl. Only that faint sense of some unknown threat threaded through the safe feeling, flawing it, and if she carefully avoided noticing it, she could just ignore it. Sora yawned sleepily, and snuggled closer, refusing to think long enough to remember...  
  
Her fingers brushed a strangeness on one arm, and she touched it more carefully. It felt like a scar, running in a raised line from the middle of the forearm to the elbow. Sora frowned.  
  
"Tai?" she whispered.  
  
*bangbangbang!*  
  
"Sora! Tai! Wake up and get out here, quick!"  
  
Tai stirred then, blinking his eyes open with a confused expression.  
  
"Wha...?"  
  
Sora twisted to look at him. "Tai, what am I doing in...?" Then the events of the past night began to come back, and she went red. But they were still dressed...they hadn't, well, done anything they would have regretted later. She wondered at that for a moment. *I sure wasn't the one who had that idea,* she thought, blushing still redder. *I was too petrified to think twice...  
  
*Why?* She quickly pushed the answer away, as quickly as she had the question. She didn't want to know just yet, didn't want those particular memories to surface until she could handle them.  
  
"We've got a visitor," she said instead, with an ironic smile. Tai nodded, and began to sit up, but Sora stopped him.  
  
"Thank you," she whispered, and gave him a quick kiss. "You really cared..."  
  
"I couldn't, well...you know," Tai said, doing a bit of blushing himself. "But I didn't want to leave you alone. You were so scared..."  
  
"You did just right," Sora said, and smiled. *Waking up in his arms is something I'm glad I got to do...and maybe, if I'd had a someday...*  
  
At that moment, the meaning behind that cryptic thought finally began to break through her shield of comfort, and she stiffened in his arms. In the same instant, the banging came again.  
  
"What on earth are you doing in there? This is important!!"  
  
"Joe," Tai groaned. He slid out of bed and walked out into the hallway, running an exasperated hand through his mussed hair.  
  
Distracted from her resurfacing fears, Sora smiled at the long-suffering look on his face, almost relaxing...but then, without Tai there to hold on to, the memories finally and without warning reasserted themselves, and she suddenly had to curl into a ball in the bed, clinging to her pillow to keep from throwing up. The urge passed quickly, and she lay there, breathing hard...  
  
"What is it?" Tai said, opening the front door. The feeling of powerlessness was coming back again, and he was starting to get into a miserable mood.  
  
"Tai, we've figured out a way," Joe said breathlessly, looking as though he'd just rolled out of bed as he hurried past Tai into the apartment...or tried to. Tai's heart gave a sudden leap at his words, and he grabbed Joe by the shoulder and spun the harried-looking doctor to face him, his eyes intent.  
  
"A way?" Tai said, an urgent tone in his voice that made Joe gulp. He nodded.  
  
"To get that thing disarmed without hurting Sora..."  
  
Tai actually swayed. "Oh, my god," he said, his voice full of too many emotions to pick out any particular one, and sat down quickly on the edge of the Hide-a-bed.  
  
"Tai? Are you okay?...oh, good morning, Joe," Sora said, coming out of the bedroom looking pale but determined, wrapped in a blanket to ward off the early autumn chill of the apartment.  
  
Joe blinked, looking from Sora to Tai to the empty Hide-a-bed to the bedroom door and back to Sora again.  
  
"Good morning..." he said finally, looking more than a little awkward, and seemed to decide Not To Ask. Sora almost giggled. Then she remembered Tai.  
  
"What's wrong?" she said, coming into the room and sitting down next to him. He turned to face her, and something about the look on his face both startled her and gave her a sudden feeling of hope.  
  
"Joe has something to explain," he said quietly. Sora frowned, puzzled, and looked up at their old friend.  
  
"I'm listening..."  
  
  
  
"...so he's gotten the concept largely pinned down, and he's been toying with models, but he can't get a good configuration set up. He says that's all that he's missing...no, hang on, he's off on the frequency, too. He can't figure out just what area of the spectrum triggers the cell multipli-"  
  
"Is there a silvery light in this spectrum?" Sora interrupted suddenly. Joe blinked.  
  
"Uh, yes, I think that was the color of one of the frequencies he was examining..."  
  
"Joe, the lights in that thing were silver!" she exclaimed, beginning to feel her old fighting spirit coming back. "They all were shooting these silver beams at me, at the spot where I was hit..."  
  
Joe's face had taken on an odd look, and his voice was composed but urgent. "Sora, can you tell me anything about the way those lights were arranged?"  
  
Sora screwed up her face, thinking. "They were in circles," she murmured. "Linked circles... It reminded me..."  
  
"Of what?" Joe said, catching her wrists and giving her an impatient little shake.  
  
"Of a soccer ball," Sora said softly, looking quite startled. "They reminded me of a soccer ball..."  
  
"Circles of five around one in the middle?" Tai said, just as taken aback.  
  
"And the circle parts all linked together," Sora said with a nod.  
  
"If I wasn't in such a hurry, I'd be amused by the irony," Joe said dryly. "But I have to go tell James about this, and fast. It's already six in the morning, and the Arena clock says we've only got about twelve hours to go..."  
  
Sora swallowed. "Another race against time?"  
  
"It's what we seem to do best," Tai said with a sigh. "But we've got a fighting chance now. That's a helluva lot better than nothing, in my book."  
  
"In everyone's book," Joe agreed, standing up. "Get dressed, you two...we've got a long day ahead of us."  
  
  
  
Izzy didn't know why he'd been dragged into the med ward with his team of technicians, but he definitely didn't feel comfortable in a hospital. Especially one packed to the brim with injured and dying. However, Commander Macbeth had told him to show up here with a dozen of his best men and women, and he'd learned a long time ago not to question her orders.  
  
So, Izzy had come, and had stood around waiting for five or six minutes, trying not to look at the young woman in the nearby bed whose arm was now a tourniquet-bound stump, or the man next to her, little more than a boy, unconscious and faintly green as the IV in his arm pumped some unidentified but powerful liquid through his veins. His team of technicians seemed just as uncomfortable. They were men and women used to the bloodless maintenance of hard- and software; the sight of human suffering was unnerving them to no end.  
  
They were all very relieved when Joe, Missy, and half a dozen other doctors and aides hurried through the door of the ward and asked them to come with them. Trotting eagerly out of the room, Izzy quickly cornered Joe, who appeared to be sharing leadership of the little group with a short, sharp-faced, intelligent-looking man with reddish-brown hair and a well-groomed mustache. He reminded Izzy of a fox, and Joe quickly introduced him as Doctor John Haiser.  
  
"We're going to put together a machine," Dr. Haiser began without preamble. "And if we're very lucky, it's going to save us all."  
  
That got Izzy's attention.  
  
"I'm listening," he said, leaning against the doorframe and meeting the doctor's searching gaze.  
  
"It's a concept I've been toying with for quite a while...a pet project, if you will, that may just grow up into a very valuable medical tool. But what we need to do here is accelerate its growth, because we have only eleven and a half hours or so to build this contraption before everything within two miles' radius of this complex goes boom in a big way."  
  
"So what are my people and I here to do?" Izzy asked instantly. Dr. Haiser gave him a long, studying look.  
  
"I'm glad to see I'm dealing with someone who doesn't dawdle when things need doing," he said after a moment. "We're looking at a light frequency generator, with minor radiation included in the mix, that will, if put together right, cause human tissue to regenerate itself at far-higher-than-normal speeds. In other words, we're building a machine that repairs people."  
  
Dozens of possibilities for that kind of apparatus leaped to Izzy's machine-oriented mind. Outwardly, however, he stayed calm.  
  
"And you need us...why? We're not mechanics, you know. We're programmers."  
  
"Exactly. And you're the best, am I right?"  
  
"Just about," Izzy said matter-of-factly, without pride or hesitation.  
  
"Then you're the most vital part of this project, besides us scientific folk and our theories. This is not going to be a simple point-and-click contraption. It's going to need to be able to focus on pinpoint areas, to tell different types of tissue or organs from one another by scanning and comparing them with DNA-pattern memory banks, to keep track of dozens of different vital areas at once and to assign different beams in different quantities to each one...this is going to be one smart piece of equipment, and you guys are here to give it those smarts. And you're going to have to do it in just a few hours. Are you up to it?"  
  
Izzy's eyes were afire with the idea of a challenge. "Bring it on," he said, with a slight, quirky grin.  
  
Dr. Haiser nodded approvingly. "Right. Come on, then. You'll want to get holed up somewhere with the data and specifics we've put together. There's a team of mechanics already working on the machine itself."  
  
Izzy nodded, and called a member of his handpicked team over. "Spence!"  
  
The young man, who looked about twenty or twenty-one, came immediately.  
  
"Izumi?"  
  
"I trust your judgment. Go pick out another dozen or so people first-rate at complicated programming and bring them, fast. Tell them it can't wait. I don't care if they're burying their mother; tell them to do it later. Got it?"  
  
Spence hesitated, then nodded resolutely. "Got it. Be back in twenty or so?"  
  
"Sounds good," Izzy agreed, and followed Dr. Haiser and the other medical folks out of the room, the rest of his team behind him.  
  
  
  
"Tai, we've got to tell them," Sora insisted.  
  
"I don't know..." Tai hadn't been putting up much resistance to the idea, but his sense of duty was still clinging to him enough to give him pause.  
  
"Oh, come on," Sora said pleadingly. "I saw them out of my window last night, and they look awful! Especially him. If anyone needs this news, they do."  
  
"But we don't know if we have news or not yet," Tai pointed out. They'd been arguing gently about this since Joe had left to let them get dressed. Sora wanted to tell TK and Kari about their possible solution; Tai still felt that they should keep it quiet until they had a more definite idea of whether or not it was going to work.  
  
"It doesn't matter. We won't know for sure if this is going to fly until the countdown ends, Tai," Sora said firmly. "And any hope is better than no hope at all."  
  
He sighed, nodding. "All right. We'll go tell them...but I am not taking the blame if it flops and they end up emotionally crushed."  
  
"If it does flop, you won't be worrying for long," Sora said darkly, and got up to head for the door. Tai followed her, and soon they were hurrying across the central courtyard by the light of the dawning sun.  
  
  
  
Kari was already up and making breakfast when she heard the knock on their door. She quickly moved the frying pan she was using to a trivet and sprinted to the entry hall, wiping egg from her hands onto a dishtowel. As she threw open the door, she was greeted by her brother's face.  
  
"Tai!" she exclaimed, near-wild with relief as she threw her arms around him, eggy dishtowel and all. "I am so glad to see you! I was so worried about how you were doing, and TK, well, you'll see in a minute, but he's been so miserable, and I can't get him to cheer up...are you okay?" She paused in her tirade, finally noticing the odd, half-hoping expression that had lit Tai's eyes since he'd heard Joe's news.  
  
"You'll see in a minute," Tai quoted her, stepping inside as she let go of him. He was followed by Sora. Kari spotted her and started forward, then hesitated, twisting her hands nervously in the dishtowel.  
  
"Sora?"  
  
Sora met Kari's gaze with a smile.  
  
"It's okay, Kari," she said gently. Kari's face warmed with relief, and she gave her old friend a hug as well.  
  
"How are you doing?" she whispered into Sora's ear, in a private girl-to-girl tone. "How's Tai taking all of this?"  
  
"Pretty well, to both questions," Sora whispered back. "And like he said, you're about to get a bit of a surprise."  
  
Kari frowned, but didn't ask. "Okay," she said instead, sounding dubious, and led them into the living room, pausing to open the oven door and give the hash-browns cooking inside a poke with a spatula, and to quickly stir the miso soup simmering in its pot a few times.  
  
"Where's TK?" Sora asked as they sat down. Kari sighed.  
  
"Still in his room," she murmured. "He's been in awful shape ever since the attack began. I think it really grated on him to not be able to help any of you guys, or me. We had to take shelter in the main building, and he hasn't forgiven himself yet...and now, what with the clock ticking away..." She shrugged helplessly.  
  
Tai shook his head, though whether for TK or his sister he didn't know. Kari was so bent on fixing everything that was wrong in the world that it was probably hurting her just as much as TK to see him moping around the house. He reached over to give her hand a reassuring squeeze before asking if he could have a chance at rousting TK out.  
  
"I guess," Kari said, looking both uncertain and grateful. "I mean, it can't hurt anything if you have a stab at it..."  
  
"Don't be so sure," Sora said cheerfully. Kari stared at her...and then cracked a smile.  
  
"Sora...are you *joking* with me?"  
  
Sora shrugged. Kari's smile widened. "I can't believe it! You've got the most reason to be afraid of anybody here..."  
  
"Then maybe I also have the most reason to hope," Sora said, smiling back. "Tai, I think you'd better get in there and talk some sense into that boy."  
  
"Beat it into him if you have to," Kari put in, with a roll of her eyes. "I can't believe he's acting like this...and he just keeps getting worse, too. I don't think I can stand it much longer, to tell the truth."  
  
Tai smiled at her good-natured honesty, and got up, leaving the girls to talk as he headed for the door opposite Kari's room; the one belonging to TK.  
  
Rapping on it, he called quietly inside. "TK?"  
  
Silence. Then... "Tai? When did you get here?"  
  
"Just now. Mind letting me in?"  
  
There was another pause, as if he was deciding, and then the door opened. Tai went quickly inside, before TK changed his mind.  
  
TK had already taken a seat again, on a wicker chest at the foot of his bed. Looking at him, Tai winced. He was dressed and groomed, so that wasn't what hit you about him, but the slump of his shoulders and the droop of his head were not what Tai would call signs of optimism...and to see TK without hope was, as Kari said, not a fun experience.  
  
"So, where do I sit?" Tai said, trying for cheerfulness. TK motioned to an armchair near the window-which had the shade pulled down-without turning his head. Shrugging, and then remembering the boy couldn't see him and wincing again, Tai sat down.  
  
"Did Kari get you to come?" TK said quietly.  
  
"No, actually it was Sora's idea," Tai replied. TK flinched at his friend's name, but covered it quickly.  
  
"How is Sora?" he asked. Tai sighed.  
  
"As well as can be expected...which is to say, not too bad." TK lifted his head at that, startled.  
  
"'Not too bad'?" he blurted. "Tai, she's doomed! We all are..."  
  
"Not necessarily," Tai calmly said.  
  
TK was silent for a long moment, carefully turning that statement over in his mind. Then he seemed to look straight at Tai, his ruined eyes intent, as if struggling to see again. For a moment he seemed almost like the old TK again, before the accident.  
  
"Tell me," he said, softly, but with an intensity in his voice that nearly made Tai regret coming here with such uncertain news. It was too late by then, though, and he might as well play it cool.  
  
"Come out to the living room," he countered. "Kari needs to hear this too, you know."  
  
Without hesitating, TK stood up and went out into the hallway, his feet unfaltering. Tai wondered for a moment how he knew how far to walk. Had he gone through the house and counted his steps? Had he and Kari worked out some other system? Tai had long ago resigned himself to never knowing how TK had gotten around so much of his handicap, but it still niggled at him sometimes, the confident way that the blind youth could walk around his own house, as if he still saw every line in the wallpaper, every detail of the carpet, every shadow behind every door...  
  
*Hope,* Tai thought, and wondered for a split second how well TK had been getting around since the attack. Not as well, he'd be willing to wager. *It's hope that does it. That's what gives him that confident stride. I guess in a big way, Sora was right. She's right like that a lot...* he added thoughtfully. Then he heard Kari's exclamation of surprise, and remembered he was supposed to be following TK into the living room. He did just that, to see TK taking a seat next to a startled-looking Kari.  
  
"Well?" he said as Tai came into the room. Tai didn't miss a beat; he sat down across from them, pulling up a chair, and leaned forward slightly.  
  
"Joe had a brainstorm," he began. "Last night, he remembered a contraption a colleague of his had been working on, and thought it sounded like the stuff Sora saw inside that Swoopmon."  
  
"'Stuff,'" Sora said with a snort. "Very scientific, Tai." TK let out a start, half-turning in his surprise.  
  
"I really don't like this whole sightless thing," he said wryly. "Sora, when did you get here?"  
  
"I've been here," Sora said with a shrug. "I thought Tai had told you. Sorry for surprising you."  
  
"'Tsall right," TK allowed. "You were saying, Tai?"  
  
"Well," Tai continued, "Joe discussed it with him and us, and he thinks this contraption could assist in the surgery necessary to disarm that thing they put in Sora, and make it possible to pull the operation off without any ill effects...or at least, nothing fatal. We've got a fighting chance, guys."  
  
Kari was silent, taken aback. TK, however, smiled.  
  
"And that's all we need, isn't it?" he said, his dejected posture already beginning to straighten. "A fighting chance."  
  
"Hope doesn't do well in a hopeless situation," Kari observed dryly, getting her voice back.  
  
"But it flourishes on the tiniest ray of light," Sora said with a knowing grin. "We'll leave you two to think that over, then. It's getting toward breakfast, and we really ought to head out."  
  
"I made enough for four, easily," Kari said, putting a hand on her arm to stop her getting up. "I thought we might get some visitors. Not everyone has kitchens that used to, you know."  
  
"A good point," Tai nodded. "Well?"  
  
"Sounds good to me," Sora said. "Did I see miso back there?"  
  
"You did indeed," Kari said with a smile. "Feel like helping to lower the level in the pot?"  
  
"I'm starving," Sora said, standing up. "And I hardly ate yesterday. One more thing hope does; it whets the appetite."  
  
"Amen to that," Tai agreed. "But you might not want to eat, Sora. If they get that thing put together in time, you're going into surgery."  
  
Kari, who had had her appendix out in the tenth grade, nodded. "He's right, Sora. If you eat anything much, you're going to have the worst stomachache in your remembered life when you wake up."  
  
Sora scowled. "I've got a stomachache now...from hunger. Are you guys going to deny a poor famished girl her potential last meal?"  
  
"You can have as much of my miso as you want, Sora," Kari said with a sly smile, "*after* your surgery. If you want it."  
  
"I think I know the answer to that already," Sora said with a scowl. "You've been through all this before, haven't you?"  
  
Kari shrugged. "Well, *I'm* hungry. And I'm not going to get sliced and diced today either, with a little luck, so I think I'll go tuck in."  
  
She headed to the kitchen with a small teasing grin, and TK followed her. Tai got up to do so, but saw Sora's crestfallen face and hesitated.  
  
"I hate you," Sora moaned at Kari's retreating back.  
  
"You don't mean that, do you?" Tai said lightly. Sora sighed, smiling in spite of herself.  
  
"No. Go ahead, Tai. I don't grudge you your breakfast...well, no more than's natural."  
  
Tai laughed, but offered her his arm.  
  
"At least come sit with us."  
  
"I don't know if I can control myself if I do," Sora said, half-joking, but linked her arm through his, walking with him after the two younger Digidestined. She still didn't know for sure that this wasn't her last day, and she wasn't wasting even a minute of time available to be spent with Tai and her friends.  
  
Especially Tai.  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 14: Through the Fire  
  
(AN) I'm not totally happy with that chapter title; it may end up changing between now and publishment. (Publishment...is that a word? -_-* ) However, pending title aside, y'all might want to look forward to this chapter. It finally details the story of *why* Sora and Tai were so apologetic when they reunited...and why Sora was so torn up over him in the first few chapters...  
  
On a less portentous note, guess what! This story now has almost 50 reviews, making it my most successful tale ever! *glows for a moment in happiness* Minna-san arigatou! This is most inspiring...more of this may just keep the chapters rolling! Remember, if you're wanting to keep readig this, there's a little button down there you can push to let me know... ^_^ I'm so evil sometimes. -Bandit O_o 


	15. Through the Fire

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 14- Through the Fire*~  
  
"One more question," Joe said as Izzy closed the window where he'd been proudly showing them the finished program. "We need someone who can disarm that bomb? Know anyone?"  
  
"I know plenty who *could*, maybe," Izzy said hesitantly, "but I'm guessing you want someone who can do it, no slips, first time?"  
  
"We're not aiming to be incinerated right there in the operating room," Dr. Haiser said dryly, "so yes, we would like someone who fits that description."  
  
Izzy looked oddly unsure. "Well...I do know someone who fits it like a glove," he said slowly. "But I'm not sure if she's up to it just now."  
  
"She?" Joe asked, blinking at him.  
  
"Yeah..." Izzy paused, and then stood up. "I'd better go find her on my own...this could be messy."  
  
  
  
"You want her to do *what*?!"  
  
"You want me to do *WHAT*?!"  
  
Izzy swallowed, looking at the two faces staring back at him.  
  
"Look, Yukiko, Davis, I know it sounds a little odd..."  
  
"A little odd?" Davis said, staring even more disbelievingly at his friend. "Izzy, that's insane! A bomb with that kind of power? What do you want her to do, hit the off button? I don't know much about bombs, but that doesn't-"  
  
"Davis," Yuki said quietly, resting her hand on his shoulder. In the short time they'd known each other, they'd become inseparable, and Davis had grown fiercely protective of her. Now, he froze, blinking at her.  
  
"Yuki...?"  
  
"Let me handle this," she said gently, and stepped around him to face Izzy. "What kind of bomb is it?"  
  
"We're not sure," Izzy said, "but we've got some pretty thorough scans of it from Sora's examination last night. They're right here," he added, handing her a folder of magnified X-rays. She pulled it open, turning first one and then another in front of the bulb of a nearby table lamp whose shade she quickly pulled off. Her blue eyes narrowed with a sharp, professional look.  
  
"Hmm...from the configuration, probably a small antimatter charge. Very powerful; potentially very, very messy." She looked up. "So what am I supposed to do about it?"  
  
By now, Davis was looking from Yuki to Izzy and back to Yuki again with an almost amusing look of utter confusion and disbelief on his face.  
  
"Well, as I've already said, we need you to disarm it," Izzy said calmly. Yuki crossed her arms.  
  
"Izumi, I retired from doing bombs over a year ago."  
  
"But you were far and away the best in Strike Team while you were still active," Izzy responded.  
  
"I quit that kind of work when I got these, if you'll kindly remember," Yuki said, gesturing to her face with her scarred hand in a short, brusque motion. "I don't want to be around explosives of any kind."  
  
"But you are around them," Izzy said firmly. "No matter what you do, you're trapped in the blast range of an explosive that is, in your own words, 'potentially very, very messy'. What are you going to do about that? Sit here and hide under the table when the clock hits zero? You have the steadiest hands in Strike Team. The best nerves, too, and most importantly, you have the know-how. But whatever you say, you'd better decide fast. We don't have much time here, in case you didn't notice."  
  
Yuki hesitated, biting her lip. Behind her, Davis' jaw had practically hit the floor.  
  
"You did bombs?" he whispered, staring at the girl as though she had sprouted a third ear. He'd realized that she was tougher than she looked, but...bombs?!  
  
The sound of his voice seemed to decide Yuki. She set her chin determinedly.  
  
"No. I *do* bombs." She extended her hand to Izzy, who shook it, grinning widely.  
  
"Welcome back, Yukiko," he said warmly.  
  
"Don't welcome me until we find out if I've still got it," Yuki said dryly. "So where's this disarming going to happen?"  
  
"I'll show you in a minute. Davis? You coming?"  
  
Davis relocated his jaw with a snap and nodded. "Uh, sure."  
  
"Just let me go dust off my tools," Yuki said, and went into her room...  
  
  
  
"Well, folks, this is it."  
  
Joe looked solemnly around the circle of his companions. Dr. Haiser, Missy, Izzy, Spence, and Yuki (with a stubborn Davis in tow) all stood in a circle around the surgical table they had specially prepared for this unorthodox operation. Above them hung a silver half-globe, a good six feet across at the open, down-facing end. A large rectangular casing at the top held circuitry and programming chips, as well as helped attach it to the ceiling.  
  
"All we have to do now is test it," Dr. Haiser said, reaching for the small scalpel resting on the table. Joe held up a hand.  
  
"Hang on," he said, and Dr. Haiser froze, staring at him.  
  
"Kido?" he said, confused.  
  
"I'll do it," Joe said firmly. As his fellow doctor opened his mouth to argue, Joe cut him off. "James, she's my friend. And I'm the head of this ward. I should test this thing."  
  
Dr. Haiser stared at him for a long moment, weighing his options.  
  
"Time's a-wasting, Doc," Missy said, nudging him.  
  
That seemed to make up his mind. He put the scalpel in Joe's outstretched hand with a brief grin that made his features even more fox-like, his black eyes bright.  
  
"As long as you think you can handle the sight of blood," he said. The others grinned and nodded agreement with the choice before heading to their stations.  
  
Joe sighed. "I've seen too much of it already in the last two days," he said sadly. "What's a little more?" Above him, the lights of the machine lit up as it hummed into life. Spots of silver light appeared on the table where the beams focused. Joe paused, looking over the scalpel, then nodded to Izzy. "Is it locked on to me?"  
  
Izzy looked up from his readout panels. "Locked and ready," he confirmed.  
  
"Then here goes nothing," Joe said, and slashed the scalpel quickly across his left palm, holding it over the table with his fingers outstretched. He gritted his teeth, letting out a little hiss of pain as blood began to well up from the long, shallow cut...  
  
And then, every one of the silver spots of light veered over to focus on his hand. There was a soft buzzing sound from the machine, and the trickling blood slowed...then stopped. Then, impossibly, yet undeniably, the cut began to close. From the very bottom it knitted together, closing to become a thin pink welt, then a faint whitish line...and then nothing but smooth, untouched skin.  
  
The machine switched off, at the touch of Spence's shaking fingers. There was silence in the surgery...  
  
And then, Yuki let out a whoop of joy. Suddenly, everyone was smiling, shouting, whacking each other on the backs, bellowing congratulations. Izzy and Spence exchanged high fives; Joe and Dr. Haiser delightedly shook hands, grinning like Cheshire cats, before Missy danced in between them and gave them both enthusiastic hugs that nearly squeezed the breath out of them, her broken hand utterly forgotten; Davis caught Yuki around the waist and spun her in a giddy circle, both of them laughing with happiness and relief.  
  
The next-to-last test had been passed; now the last phase could begin.  
  
  
  
Tai was sprawled in an armchair in the side room of the ward when Missy wheeled Sora out of the changing room on the surgical bed that would carry her through the whole ordeal, dressed once again in white leggings and shirt. She was a bit pale, but her chin was set stubbornly, and the old fire burned in her eyes. Tai smiled, looking at her. Missy looked from him to Sora and quietly left the room.  
  
"What?" Sora said, smiling a little in return as Tai came over to the edge of the bed. "What's funny?"  
  
"Nothing," he murmured. He took a deep breath, and sighed. "So."  
  
"So," Sora echoed, propping herself on her elbows with a sigh of her own. "Here we are."  
  
"Yeah," Tai said, examining his sleeve.  
  
There was a long pause. When they did speak, it was at the same time, a pair of sudden, jumbled blurtings.  
  
"If I don't-"  
  
"Sora, I think-"  
  
They stopped, laughing weakly, and Tai gestured to Sora.  
  
"Ladies first," he said, with a shadow of his old lopsided smile.  
  
She blushed. "I...well, I was just saying that, um, if I don't come back all right from this..."  
  
"But you will," Tai interrupted.  
  
"I know," Sora agreed. "But if, by some freak accident or something, I didn't... Well, I wanted to tell you that...that it was worth it. To see you again, I mean."  
  
Tai nodded. "Thanks... And I was thinking, well, my neighbor's been talking about moving someplace closer to where he works, in programming, so if you ever..." He trailed off, waiting. Sora sighed, her head and heart aching.  
  
"Tai, please don't."  
  
"But I just-" he began, looking hurt. Sora stopped him with a finger across his lips.  
  
"I know. But Tai...that's too far ahead. This moment is all I'll got to call my own right now, and I can't think about the future until I know I have one. I can't take it. So, please, wait until I have more than this little bit of right-now to work with...and then, ask me again." Her eyes held his. "Maybe you'll get an answer you'll like."  
  
He nodded again, sighing. That was as much of an answer as he was going to get just then, and he knew it. But he was willing to wait. He'd waited more than twenty years already...  
  
"All right," he said, and reached over to take her hand, giving it a squeeze. "Hang on tight to that moment of yours, okay? I'd kinda miss you if you didn't." He smiled. "We all would."  
  
"I will," Sora said, sitting up to kiss him tenderly. When they parted, there was a long moment of poignant silence...  
  
Sora broke the tension by reaching up to affectionately muss Tai's hair. He yelped and grinned. "Hey!"  
  
"Don't worry about me, Taichi," she said with an impish half-smile. "I'll be fine."  
  
"We're ready to get started."  
  
The voice was Joe's, coming from behind the surgery door. Tai's throat caught with a nervous lump, as Missy appeared in the doorway, dressed in surgical scrubs and looking a lot like Sora did: anxious yet determined.  
  
"All set?" she asked. Sora nodded.  
  
"Raring to go," she responded, lying back down on the surgical bed. Tai gave her hand a squeeze.  
  
"I'm not allowed in the surgery," he said with a touch of both amusement and worry in his voice. "Joe's afraid I'll get jittery and screw something up somehow. But I'll do my best to be the first face you see when you wake up, okay?"  
  
"Okay," Sora said softly, and Tai felt a tug at his heart. Suddenly she looked so fragile...  
  
*But she isn't,* he reminded himself. *She's strong, or she wouldn't have gotten this far. And I need to step back and let her do her thing.*  
  
"See you in an hour or two," he said, reluctantly letting go of her hand as Missy began to push the bed into the room. Someone...it looked like one of Izzy's techs, a fellow he'd seen a few times but hadn't caught the name of...held the door open. Standing forlornly in the waiting room, Tai followed Sora with his eyes, and her gaze didn't leave his until the door closed behind her.  
  
Tai thought he heard her call, 'See you,' in answer, just as the door shut, but he couldn't be sure.  
  
* 'In an hour or two',* he echoed his own words in his mind. *God, I hope I'm right...*  
  
  
  
"So how's this going to work?" Sora asked, trying to mask her nervousness with questions as Missy carefully centered the table-bed under the domelike machine, then snapped the brakes into place against its wheels, settling it firmly in its spot.  
  
Izzy came over, his face hidden behind a surgical mask. His familiar dark eyes were the same as ever, though, and this relaxed Sora a little. She knew she was in good hands.  
  
"Well, we've already established that we can't get the bomb *out* of you without major and extremely negative physical repercussions," he said with a sigh. "Not with our present technology, at least."  
  
Spence spoke up from his place at the control panel. "In a few weeks, we should have this baby amped up enough to get that thing out of you and get rid of it for good," he said, jerking a thumb at the machine hanging from the ceiling.  
  
"Here's hoping we live that long," Yuki chimed in from where she was scrubbing up near the door.  
  
"So we're going to go in and try to disarm it inside you," Izzy continued. "With Yukiko's expert help, of course."  
  
Yuki snapped him a salute and a grin.  
  
"Isn't that dangerous?" Sora said quietly.  
  
"Is anything *not* dangerous anymore?" Joe said, coming in all dressed for work. "Anything *we're* related to, that is."  
  
"Good point," Sora said with a grin. "So, it's dangerous, but no more than anything else we've thought of, and a lot less so than most of it?"  
  
"That's about the size of it," Izzy agreed. Missy piped up from near Sora's head.  
  
"Yeah, we get to the little bugger, Yukiko gets rid of its teeth, and our super-gizmo here keeps you from hemorrhaging to death while she does it."  
  
"Thank you, Misube, for that expert analysis," Joe said dryly. "Well, Sora, now that you've had your daily dose of happiness from my cousin, I think we'd better get started. If you're all ready to go?"  
  
"Ready," the team chorused. Sora glanced around. Joe, Missy, Yuki, Izzy, and his most trusted tech...she was in good hands, and she knew it. With a small sigh, she leaned back and rested her head on the small hospital pillow as Joe came over with the anesthesia mask that would keep her under for the duration of the disarming.  
  
"Okay, Doc," Sora said, smiling lopsidedly. "Let's get this thing declawed."  
  
  
~~~  
  
The soft darkness lasted for hours or minutes, she couldn't be sure. She floated, calm and only vaguely thinking. Blessed silence and lack of feeling...she half wished she could stay this way forever. But eventually, gradually, she drifted into normal sleep.  
  
And the darkness faded into colors, as the familiar dream began.  
  
"I have to talk to you..."  
  
Sora looked up. It was Tai, standing in the doorway of her rented house. Smiling, she dusted flour from her hands onto her apron-she'd been making bread when he'd arrived-and dashed to the door.  
  
"Tai," she cried cheerfully, about to hug him hello...but the look on his face stopped her, and she halted in front of him, twisting the hem of her apron in her hands nervously. "Tai?" she whispered, her voice was hesitant, uncertain...  
  
He held up an envelope. "Remember these?"  
  
Sora blinked at it, and then her face darkened. "Those? Oh, don't tell me you're all torn up over that again. Those guys are nutcases, Tai. You know that."  
  
"No," he murmured, looking down at her with solemn, worried brown eyes. "I don't know that..."  
  
She frowned at him. "What? Tai, what's wrong with you?"  
  
"They telephoned me," he said, not quite meeting her gaze now. "They told me...never mind what they told me. Sora, this is serious. Deadly serious."  
  
"But..." Sora whispered, afraid of the weight his eyes already carried. "Tai, you can't be planning to..."  
  
"We all are," he said evenly. "Joe, Izzy, Davis, TK, and Kari. They called me this morning, and we got together and made our decision."  
  
"But...Tai..." Sora cried, disoriented, unsure of what to do. She'd spent the whole morning in a delighted dream, on an emotional high from their kiss the night before. When she'd woken up that morning, the world had seemed perfect...and now it was crashing down around her ears.  
  
"I'm leaving tonight," Tai said, and the words hit Sora like a sledgehammer. She reeled, as Tai kept on talking, unaware of the effect he was having on her, or maybe not even caring... "I wanted to come by and ask you to change your mind about the Project...to come with me..."  
  
"No!" Sora wailed, darting forward to bury her face in his shoulder, clutching his shirt. "You can't go, you can't leave...!"  
  
Tai held her, rocking her gently. "You can come with me," he murmured in her ear. "We don't have to be separated. Come with me, Sora."  
  
She pushed away then, her eyes suddenly cold. "You want me to...come with you? To just pull up stakes and leave, just like that? Maybe that's your style, Tai, but it's not mine."  
  
"Sora, I'm not asking a lot-" Tai began, but Sora interrupted, staring at him.  
  
"Not asking a lot? Tai, you're asking for everything!" She didn't understand him! To leave, maybe for years, or forever...and to expect her to just go along with him, like it was no big deal?! "How can you stand there and...command me to come? Did you think I would just nod and go with you, like some kind of...of pliant zombie?! I can't leave my entire life behind because you want to run off and play hero again!"  
  
"Sora-"  
  
"Tai, don't do this! They don't need you there!"  
  
"They need us more than anyone!" Tai exploded, losing his patience. He caught her by the shoulders, giving her a little shake. "You don't understand that, do you? If you'd heard half the things I heard...people are dying out there, Sora, and I can't sit here and let that happenin! I have to do something about it!"  
  
Sora's eyes were angry and hurt. "And how do you know they're dying?" she snapped back. "Did your friends on the telephone tell you? How come it's not on the news?"  
  
"If it got out to the public, there would be panic in the streets!" Tai shot back. "You've got to understand this, Sora-"  
  
"All I understand is that you're jumping on some lame excuse to run off and leave me stranded so you can go on some dumbass *mission* and get killed!"   
  
"Sora, I can't back out of my responsibilities! I can't fail these people!"  
  
"And since when is Taichi spelled G-O-D?" Sora snapped. "Ever since we've been kids you've been like this! You see conflict and you throw yourself into it without stopping to think!"  
  
"My duty-" he started to say, but the holier-than-thou tone of his voice was too much.  
  
Sora's voice was harsh, raw with loss and anger. "Duty my ass! I think you just can't stand to sit by while other people have 'fun' adventuring!" He tried to take her hand, but she pulled away from him, whirling on him in fury. "Well, fine! I could care less how you waste your life! If your so-called duty is all you care about, go die for their goddamn stupid cause! Just don't expect to ever see me again!"  
  
Tai fell silent, staring at her, their faces so close they nearly touched, in a cruel parody of their kiss the night before. Then he pushed her away from him, not hard, but firmly, with a cold strength. She stumbled, looking up at him with eyes full of sudden remorse as she realized what she'd said, realized she'd lost control...  
  
"Fine."  
  
Sora felt like she was choking on her own words. "Oh, my god...Tai, I...I-I'm sorry..."  
  
"Don't be." His voice was so cold... It was like a knife, sharp and cruel. Tai had been pushed past the point of no return. "I'll go. And I don't need your permission to do it. I'll go alone...and happily so. Screw you, anyway."  
  
He turned, and walked out the door.  
  
"Tai!" Sora cried, taking a running step forward... "Tai, I'm sor-" The door slammed in her face.  
  
She let out the tears then, and slid down to huddle against the doorframe, sobbing hopelessly...  
  
But the dream was kind enough to end there, and she was back in the darkness again. The fight had been the last time they'd spoken in three years, until they'd come back together here at the HQ. Looking back, she saw the grief in Tai's eyes that she'd been too angered and betrayed to see at the time...and recognized the sadness and frustration and fear that had driven them to those cruel words against each other. If only...  
  
*If only I'd kept a hold of my temper, or he'd kept a hold of his. If only we weren't both so stubborn. If only we hadn't had that talk before, when the letters first came, and ended it on a sour note then as well. If only we'd made better decisions...  
  
*But then, where did our decisions take us? This is as low as we can get, just waiting to live or to die...but somehow it's worth it to be together again, at peace again. Tai saved lives while he was here, and changed in a lot of positive ways; he finally grew up. I got to spend another three years with my mother, learning from my mistakes..not to mention getting to see the beginnings of what will undoubtedly be the cutest baby ever born. We're both older, wiser, and ready to start over.  
  
*So maybe we didn't screw up so badly, after all. Hasn't the best steel been passed through the fire? We sure went through hell together...but now we're stronger than ever, our relationship better than ever. Two decades of friendship came through for us, even after the worst of fights. It even managed to turn into something...more.  
  
*If only I can pull through...then things may just work out after all.  
  
*And you know what? It's about time.*  
  
~~~  
  
  
  
When Tai got back to his apartment, it seemed strangely empty. He sighed, almost smiling at himself. *She's only been back for a few days...and yet it seems like she's been around forever. It's crazy...  
  
*But then, sanity was never a major part of my life to begin with.*  
  
He did smile then, and it made him feel somehow better. Taking a deep breath, he went over to the kitchen and began to fix himself some lunch: a TV dinner. It wasn't Kari's cooking, that was for sure, but he needed to eat, and it was better than nothing.  
  
"Of course, 'need' and 'want' are two very different things," he murmured as he sat at the table watching his meal slowly rotate in the microwave. Whether it was his worry over Sora or the dinner itself, which was starting to bubble unattractively, he didn't feel much like eating at all. The microwave timer went off, and he stood and took the tray out, setting it on the table. He looked at it for a long moment. Then he sighed again, and went to rummage through a drawer for a fork and a napkin.  
  
There weren't any napkins. Eager to stall lunchtime, Tai headed toward the hallway, planning to grab one out of the dryer. He was halfway across the living room when something crinkled under his foot. Hesitating, he looked down.  
  
A crumpled piece of paper lay on the floor. He didn't need to be told what it was. Slowly, he reached down and picked it up, smoothing it out to finish reading it as he sat down on the edge of the Hide-a-Bed.  
  
  
Dear Tai-  
  
I can't put into words how hard this is...it's probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I know you don't deserve to have this happen to you, but I can't stay here...  
  
Life hasn't been kind to us, has it? We never seem to get it together in the right place at the right time. You don't know how much I want to stay with you, Tai--if it were just you and me, I would settle down here in a heartbeat. I want you to know that.  
  
But it isn't just you and me, is it? You have the strongest pull on my heart, but there are a thousand other little strings tugging at me, too. My mother, who needs me like I once needed her as she gets older. Mimi and Matt, and the baby they're going to give so much love to...how can I not be there to help?  
  
And then there's the fear. It blots out almost everything. This place is hard, Tai, and it's cold. You're so strong to stay here; you and everyone else at the Project. You make your own warmth, but I don't know if I can be as strong as you.  
  
If I stay here, I can't turn back...and what if I freeze in this dangerous cold? I can't expect you to be there for me, no matter what. That's not fair to you. You shouldn't have to take care of me. You never asked to have me dumped into your hands; I can't live off your good graces forever.  
  
So I guess there's only one decision left to make, isn't there? It kills me to do this, Tai...it's killing me right now, as I write this, but it's the only way. You have to see that. I hope you won't forget me, and that maybe when this is over... No. That's not fair to you, either. You've waited a long time, and I shouldn't ask you to wait any longer.  
  
Forget me, Tai. Forget me and go on with life, and be happy. I was the one who was too afraid to stick it out, the one who ran away.  
  
I don't deserve you.  
  
But I'll never forget you...and I'll love you for the rest of my life.   
  
-Sora  
  
  
As he finished the note, Tai's hands were trembling. He went back, read it again, more slowly, then carefully folded it and tucked it into his pocket. The words of the note continued to circle in his mind.  
  
'If it were just you and me.....I don't know if I can be as strong as you.....I can't turn back.....I don't deserve you.....I'll never forget you......  
  
'I'll love you for the rest of my life.'  
  
*Did she mean it?*  
  
The thought was sudden, and charged with a strange, powerful excitement. *She'll love me forever...did she mean it?!* The words of the letter were from a day and yet a millennia ago; since they were written, both Tai and Sora had been through the worst day, the worst stress and pain and fear, of their respective lives... But Sora had made it through.  
  
She *was* strong.  
  
And now she knew it.  
  
Somehow, that changed everything.  
  
Humming with that newfound, powerful energy, Tai pulled the note back out of his pocket and unfolded it quickly, reading it over with an intense gaze as an idea formed in his mind. It was crazy, it was impossible, and it was probably the most impulsive thing he'd ever done in a life of impulsiveness...but it just might come out right.  
  
And if it did, it meant that Sora's plan *wasn't* the only way...and with a touch of luck, they might just get their own little bit of happily-ever-after, after all.  
  
Jumping up, Tai left the unwanted dinner to go cold in the kitchen, and went to talk to Kari.  
  
  
  
When Sora awoke, her head was aching slightly, and her back more than slightly...but she was alive. She lay there for a minute, eyes closed, just savoring the feeling of her own body going through its normal paces. Her breathing went in and out, her mind wandered, her heart beat steadily...  
  
A hand touched her arm, and her heartbeat sped up a notch. She opened her eyes.  
  
"Tai?" she whispered, as his face came into focus above her. He smiled.  
  
"Good morning, sunshine. How are you feeling?"  
  
"You kept your promise," Sora murmured, somehow touched. Tai nodded.  
  
"Yup." He paused, looking her over. "You look good... Does your back hurt? Do you want anything to eat?"  
  
Sora smiled. He looked so concerned, it was almost funny...and very endearing.  
  
"I'm fine, Tai," she assured him. "Just a little sore...how long have I been out?"  
  
"A couple hours," Tai said, checking his watch.  
  
"A couple hours?!" Sora echoed, quite shocked, as she tried to sit up. "What time is it? Why did Joe put me down for that long?"  
  
"Easy, easy," Tai soothed her, trying to get her to lie down again. "Trust me, for post-surgery, that was barely a nap. You need a lot of rest, even with that machine of James's."  
  
Sora reluctantly lay down. Her back *did* hurt, just below her left shoulder blade. She wouldn't have admitted it, but she probably wouldn't have done well just then trying to get up, anyway.  
  
"So what time is it?" she asked. "You could at least tell me that."  
  
"About four o'clock," Tai said. Sora blinked.  
  
"Tai, that's nearly five hours I've been asleep..." She paused. "What were you doing all that time?" she asked, out of curiosity.  
  
Tai glanced down. "I kept busy," he murmured evasively.  
  
Sora blinked again, but decided not to push the point. "Well, two hours or so to go," she said, almost cheerily, instead. "And then we'll know if this all worked...or find out real quickly if it didn't. How's the team?"  
  
"You mean the surgery folks?" Tai asked. "They're fine. Joe and James went off for a stiff drink once you were all sealed up and done with. Spence went with them; from the color of his face, I think he needed it. I don't think he's ever been in a surgery before. And Izzy is Izzy; nothing ruffles him." Tai shook his head admiringly.  
  
"Davis was stalking all over the complex muttering about how Yukiko shouldn't have been going through all that right after the attack...but when I talked to her afterward, to see how it went, she seemed just fine. Maybe better than she's been in a while. I think this helped her face her fears; you know, heal a little. Try telling that to Davis, though." He laughed, and Sora laughed with him.  
  
"What about Missy?" she asked after a moment. Tai shrugged.  
  
"Off pestering Joe by now, I suppose. Not even a broken hand slows that one down."  
  
"I'd noticed," Sora agreed, wryly. "Well, I hope she's up to helping me out to the courtyard at six...unless you want to volunteer for the duty?"  
  
Tai frowned.  
  
"You actually expect to go out there?"  
  
"Hey, *you* actually expect me to sit quietly in here and wait for Armageddon? I don't think so, Taichi. You know me better than that." She grinned, and the old Sora was back again in force with the confidence of that smile. "I'm going out and watching the clock count down the last few minutes, and if you or Missy won't help me, I'll commandeer a wheelchair and go by myself."  
  
Tai shrugged, easily defeated. He *did* know Sora better than that, and had expected just such a request...or a demand, really. He'd already talked to Joe about it, and the MD had agreed that they owed Sora that much. Still, there hadn't been any harm in trying for another option.  
  
"All right."  
  
"Hm?" Sora said, frowning at him in surprise.  
  
"I said, 'All right'," Tai said with a smile. "I figured you'd want to stare doom in the face with the rest of us, so I asked Joe, and he said he'd get his people working on a way to get you out there...but only if you're up to it."  
  
"I'm up to it, I'm up to it," Sora said eagerly, sitting up again with less difficulty this time. "When can we go?"  
  
"Whoa, slow down," Tai laughed. "We've got a few hours to wait, Sora. Joe says you should take another nap, and eat something...Kari's going to send over some miso."  
  
"Don't bait me, Taichi Kamiya," Sora groaned, putting a hand to her stomach. "If I thought I could eat I wouldn't be still sitting here, I'd be over at Kari's already, demanding a bowl of that stuff."  
  
Tai grinned. "So, are you glad you took our advice? It would be even worse if you hadn't."  
  
"Worse?" Sora moaned, making a melodramatic face. "It could get worse? My back hurts, I'm hungry, yet too seasick to eat, and I've got a good chance of going boom in the next two hours, and you say it could be worse? I don't know whether to call you an optimist or a pessimist, Tai."  
  
Tai laughed, and sat back in his chair to wait.  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
Coming soon- Chapter 15: Faith and Fortune  
  
(AN) Well, ladies and gents, we're getting toward the end of our little epic. Only the one chapter remaining, and then the epilogue, and then...Project: Moment will be over! Finis! Owatta! *sniff* I'm gonna miss it...  
  
That's the bad news. The good news is...well, I'll leave that until the real end. A bit of a surprise, shall we say. M_~* Ah, I love the power of being an author! Mwahaha...ahem.  
  
Anyway, that's pretty much all I had to say, except for two things. 1) Aren't you glad I finally cleared up the issue of why Tai and Sora were so miserable at the beginning? And 2) Basic instructions for fanfic continuation: Open reviewing window, insert review, receive final chapters! Kudos, and good night! -Bandit O_o 


	16. Faith and Fortune

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Chapter 15- Faith and Fortune*~  
  
The main courtyard of the complex was choked with people. Those unable or unwilling to come out into the courtyard watched from windows or balconies. Yet even with all these people, almost the entire remaining population of the Project HQ, watching, the complex was strangely silent. Hundreds, thousands of faces were turned toward the clock over the Arena door.  
  
It read 00:12:37, and it was ticking down fast.  
  
The soft sound of a door sliding open seemed to echo through the air. The thousands of faces turned, to see two figures slowly emerge from the door. One male. One female. The man supported the woman with an arm around her waist; the woman leaned heavily on him, still tired from surgery, yet held her head high and managed to move with a dignified grace as they moved to stand just outside the doorway.  
  
As they took the first steps toward the clock, there was silence. Then, whispers began to gust and skitter through the crowd, sounding like the soft rush of the wind in a spring storm. The two figures stopped, looking around uncertainly as the whispers became louder, then died out.  
  
Silence reigned again.  
  
The two hesitated...took another tentative step into the courtyard.  
  
And then, on a balcony high above, someone began to applaud.  
  
The sound pattered like raindrops into the silence. Someone else joined in, and another, and another...and suddenly, in a sweeping wave, the entire courtyard seemed to be clapping, with a sound like thunder. Sora's eyes filled with grateful tears as the complex walls rang with the sound of her friends' and fellow hopers' support.  
  
"Thank you," she whispered. Up on a balcony she could see Davis and Yukiko; Kari waved from her porch as her brother and her friend passed by, TK smiling at her side. The rest of their friends were waiting up ahead, ranged around the base of a wooden platform that had been erected below the Arena clock.  
  
Missy grinned from where she stood near Joe, and waved an inviting hand toward the steps of the platform.  
  
Sora's eyes widened, and she let out a little sob, stopping.  
  
"What is it?" Tai asked, concerned. Sora sighed wistfully as she looked up at him.  
  
"They don't hate me, Tai," she whispered. "You all went to this kind of trouble for me...and I'm the one who..." Her voice trailed off. Tai sighed.  
  
"Of course they don't hate you," he said, giving her waist a squeeze where his arm wrapped around it. "It isn't your fault you got singled out by those jerks...and anyone who says otherwise will have to answer to me. And the rest of the Digidestined, not to mention Missy."  
  
"Who, after all, is worth all of the Digidestined put together when it comes to a fistfight," Sora said with an ironic smile. Tai smiled back, and they climbed the steps together. Tai carefully helped her up them, tender and firm at the same time, making sure she didn't fall.  
  
Then they were there, just the two of them on the platform, with the red numbers of the clock shining 00:05:22 above them and thousands of eyes turned upon them.  
  
Sora took Tai's hand, squeezing it. "Stay with me," she whispered.  
  
"I wouldn't dream of anything else," Tai whispered back, and they shared another warm look. *Somehow, we've come to depend on each other in the last twenty-four hours...more than we ever did before. I can't imagine what life would be like without her...* He took a deep breath. *Five minutes...I'd better ask now, or forever hold my peace...or pieces.*  
  
Tai swallowed. "Sora?"  
  
She turned, wiping tears onto her sleeve and smiling. "What?"  
  
"Um...I know this is a strange time for this, but..." He smiled self-consciously. "Even with all of...um, this," he gestured at the rapidly dropping numbers on the clock, "your coming here has been the best thing to happen to me in...well, I don't know how long." Tai blushed. "Sorry, I guess I'm not very good at this. But what I'm trying to say is, I'm glad you came. I think everybody else here is, too. Look..."  
  
He waved his free arm out at the masses of people, many still applauding. "They're all cheering for you, just like I am. They love you, Sora, and whether you know it or not, they need you, too. And..." Tai paused. "And I need you. More than anything. I can't imagine life without you, Sora...and I don't want to. Ever again." He trailed off, looking down at the platform in silence.  
  
A smile flitted across Sora's lips. "So...you're asking me to stay?"  
  
"No," Tai said, and looked up, turning to meet her gaze with those wonderful chocolate-brown eyes, full of deep emotion and an earnest hope that was endearing and almost boyish, as he took her hands in his own. "I'm asking you to marry me."  
  
Silence stretched between them as they gazed at each other. Then, Sora's face broke into a smile.  
  
"Taichi Kamiya, you would have to wait for a time like this to finally ask me, wouldn't you?"  
  
Tai grinned mischievously, catching the joke. "Yeah, you'd better think fast. Time's ticking away."  
  
Pausing, Sora glanced at the clock. It was at 00:01:12, and losing time rapidly. She looked back at Tai: her best and oldest friend, her trusted confidante, her companion since childhood...  
  
Her love.  
  
"It took me this long to figure it out," she whispered, almost amused at herself. Tai blinked.  
  
"Well?" he said, leaning forward. There were fifty seconds left. Sora met his eyes with her own brandy-brown gaze.  
  
"Yes," she firmly said, giving his hands a squeeze. "I love you, Tai. I'd love to marry you."  
  
"Perfect," Tai said softly, his face lightening with joy and a profound sense of relief. "Now I can die happy." Their faces were almost touching; Sora smiled.  
  
"Don't you give up on me yet," she whispered, and kissed him.  
  
Behind them, the clock counted down.  
  
00:00:03  
  
00:00:02  
  
00:00:01  
  
Everyone, in the courtyard, in the housing village, in the main building, held their breaths.  
  
Everyone but two.  
  
00:00:00  
  
The number blinked red in the sight of the thousands of people...  
  
Standing in the courtyard, Missy leaned over and nudged her cousin.  
  
"Vhere iz de boom?" she said.  
  
Joe blinked at her.  
  
"It's from Rocky and...oh, forget it! We're alive!!!" she screeched, and grabbed him in a tight hug, dancing him around. Around them, the crowd erupted. Missy was still shrieking delighted congratulations. "Joe, you did it! You really did it!!!"  
  
"Whoa, whoa, slow down!" Joe cried. "I just gave Death the slip, I don't want to get caught again so soon! Besides, aren't you supposed to be an invalid?"  
  
His protests were drowned out as a massive cheer rolled like joyful thunder through the air around them. People were laughing, crying, yelling, dancing, throwing things around in the general jubilee. The air was filled with hats tossed triumphantly into the air.  
  
Izzy was already running over to them; he pounded Joe on the back hard enough to nearly knock him over. "We did it, you mean," he teased, grinning from ear to ear.  
  
Up on the platform, Tai and Sora drew apart...but only far enough to speak.  
  
"Well, I don't *feel* dead," Tai quipped. Sora nodded, solemnly playing along.  
  
"Funny, me neither...and I've definitely got the most reason."  
  
"Not even a movement?" Tai said, raising an eyebrow at the area of her heart.  
  
"Not even a twitch," Sora agreed, and then there was no more chance for talking as Tai let out a whoop and picked her up, twirling her around before setting her down and sweeping her into another, very thorough kiss.  
  
More cheers went up from those close enough to see what was going on, and Missy let out a gleeful whistle with the fingers of her good hand. From above on a certain balcony, a pair of blue eyes looked tearfully out from below waves of golden curls.  
  
"It's about time," Yukiko said softly, smiling through her tears. "Be happy, you two..."   
  
  
  
~*~*~*~  
Dear Diary,  
  
Joe says I ought to keep a record of my life so that I can look back on the good times when I need to. Well, here you go, Joe. I'm not much good at putting my thoughts into writing...not like TK, or anything. But I figure I might as well at least try.  
  
It's been almost three weeks now since the Stingmon attack and Tai's proposal. I still can't believe he asked me to marry him! Well, maybe I can. Some things just feel right, you know? Like fate... I guess fortune played a pretty big part in our relationship from day one...that, and a little faith in each other, and in life itself. Maybe that's really what gets you through life in the end; faith and fortune. I feel pretty fortunate right now.  
  
I moved into the apartment next door to Tai's when Keigo, his old neighbor, moved out. In fact, I'm supposed to go over for dinner soon. I'm still wondering whether to bring Coffee.... Coffee is my puppy. He was a present from Tai, with help from Andrew, and he's incredibly cute. I might be biased toward liking cute things, but even Izzy has to admit he's an appealing little guy. He's one of DC's bunch; Andrew asked Tai if he wanted one once they were weaned, and he says I was the first person that came into his mind. He made me breakfast in bed, and when he went to get the coffee, he brought in that puppy instead. I went crazy... So, of course we had to name him Coffee. He's kind of coffee-colored, golden mostly but with brown shadings on his face and his paws from his dad, Jones. Tai and I love him to pieces. If we give half as much attention to our kids as we do to that dog, they're going to be spoiled rotten...   
  
Andrew's going to be okay, I think. Losing his sister was really hard on him, and he still hasn't recovered; none of his family has. But I think what they really need is time. Their wounds are still fresh, you know? Time heals all, they say. And I think they're doing all right, considering. They're learning to let go.  
  
Speaking of letting go, Joe found out about Mimi. He had to sooner or later, I guess. He finally got the time to ask me about everyone, last week, and I had to tell him. He took it as well as anyone could expect him to. They didn't part on very good terms when he left; not as bad as Tai and I, but not great. I think he had a mental image of her sitting at home, pining for him like he's been for her...not that he showed it or anything, but Tai used to go over and talk to him about it, and he told me. So hearing about how she is now came as a nasty shock. I was afraid of that...but he's okay now. He said something to me the other day about moving on...I really hope he finds someone. He's a good guy, you know?  
  
We're all moving on. The complex still smells like paint and fresh concrete and hot glasstic from the repairs that Technical and Maintenance teams had to do after the attack. Missy is champing at the bit for her hand to heal so that she can go back to karate again. She keeps going on about losing her edge with a 'bo', whatever that is. I thought she meant the kind you shoot arrows from, but when I asked her about it, she just gave me this 'oh, please' look and walked off. I guess I'll have to ask Joe about it.   
  
Yukiko and Davis are pretty much best friends by now; they go everywhere together. Kari and I have been wondering if there's something more to their friendship, but so far there haven't been any real signs of it. Kind of a pity, really; it would get Davis permanently off of Kari's back, and Yuki really deserves a real relationship. God knows she's been through more than her share of troubles. TK is doing a lot better, and Kari is behind him all the way. Joe says he might be able to work something out with that machine of his to fix his eyesight within the next few years, so once again TK has a hope to hold on to. And Izzy is...well, like Tai said, Izzy is Izzy. He just keeps plugging along.  
  
So I guess you could say I've settled in. For good? Maybe. It all depends on how long the Project takes. As soon as I agreed to stay, Tai brought me to a meeting and Command filled me in. I finally have to admit it; he was right. We have to do this. People are depending on us...everyone is.  
  
I just hope the others come soon...and for more reasons than one. After all, I was Mimi's best maid, and I promised she would be mine.  
  
I'm not afraid of freezing anymore. I can make my own warmth, and when I falter, my friends are there to help. Especially Tai...which I have no problem with. We keep each other warm, in this cold place. And somehow, it doesn't seem so cold anymore. We *all* just keep plugging along, through faith and fortune.  
  
Together.  
  
  
-Sora  
~*~*~*~ 


	17. Epilogue

~*Project: Moment*~  
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit  
  
  
~*Epilogue- Six Months Later*~  
  
*ding-dong!*  
  
"I'm coming!" Mimi Tachikawa shouted, bustling through the living room of the Ishidas' apartment. "Oh, darn it!" she added under her breath as she stumbled over a pillow left lying on the floor. It was so hard to avoid things like that when you couldn't see your feet...  
  
*ding-dong!*  
  
"I swear, if this baby doesn't come soon... Hold your horses! I'm coming!" A bit out of temper, she reached the door at last and threw it open-and froze.  
  
There was no one there.  
  
"Oh, I like that," she muttered, about to turn back into the apartment and slam the door. Suddenly, a sound caught her ear, and she glanced up to see someone dashing off down the hallway. "Hey, you!" she yelled. "Stop right now! I see you!"  
  
The man's steps slowed, then stopped. Mimi frowned. He was standing with his back to her, nearly to the stairs.  
  
"Oh, for heaven's sake," she snapped, exasperated at this stranger's sheer gall. "For a teenager to go running around pulling pranks like that is one thing, but a full grown man? You ought to be asham...oh, my God..."  
  
The man had turned around. He was three years older, but not changed so much that she wouldn't know that face at a glance.  
  
"Hi, Mimi," Jyou Kido said sheepishly.  
  
"Joe!" Mimi cried, completely thrown. "What are you doing...I mean, why...how?!"  
  
"Look down," Joe said with a sigh. Mimi obliged, and saw a sealed envelope, lying on the doormat.  
  
"What is that?" Mimi asked, still stunned. She hadn't seen Joe in three years! And now he just decided to show up unannounced on her doorstep?  
  
"A letter," Joe said evasively. "I think you'd better read it. Lord knows I've had enough trouble getting it to you."  
  
Mimi was still trying to figure out what he was *doing* there.  
  
"I...I don't understand... I thought you weren't allowed out of that place..."  
  
"Well, technically, I'm not," Joe admitted, "but the circumstances called for an exception."  
  
Mimi glanced down at the letter.  
  
"Who's it from?"  
  
"The last person you'd expect," Joe said quietly.  
  
"You're not being very exact," Mimi observed shrewdly. Joe shrugged.  
  
"And you're not being very friendly."  
  
"Friendly?" Mimi said, a bit miffed. "Joe, you up and left for three years! Some friendship."  
  
"I won't say I don't have my regrets," Joe said, looking at his shoes. "But... Have things changed so much?"  
  
"Yes," Mimi stated flatly. "At least, I have."  
  
Joe smiled, a rather sad expression. "I could see that," he said wryly, eyeing her enormous belly. "When are you due?"  
  
"Any day now," Mimi said, giving her stomach a fond pat. "I can't wait to get it over with! I'm sick and tired of walking around like a drunk duck, bumping into everything and looking ugly as sin." Her warmly smiling face showed that she felt just the opposite of her words; she looked as pleased as punch with the whole thing.  
  
Joe shook his head. "Liar," he teased. Then he hesitated. "You don't look ugly."  
  
"Now who's lying?" Mimi said lightly. Joe swallowed, a wistful look on his face.  
  
"I'm not lying... You're as beautiful as ever, you know."  
  
Mimi sighed. "Joe, I'm married now," she said gently. "I'm in love, and I'm going to be a mother...I'm happier than I've ever been. We wouldn't have worked."  
  
His shoulders slumped, just a bit, as he answered.  
  
"Yeah, I know...but it's just hard to accept."  
  
"I'm sorry," Mimi said, trying to be kind. Joe frowned.  
  
"No, you're not. You shouldn't be." He paused. "I'll deal with it," he said finally. "I just wanted to see you again, that's all. We all miss you, Mimi. The others send their love, and say good luck with the baby!"  
  
He'd started to back toward the stairs as he spoke.  
  
"Read the letter," he added, and turned to go.  
  
"Joe, wait!" Mimi cried, stretching out a hand after him. 'The others'...there was so much she wanted to know!  
  
"You're going to make an excellent mother!" Joe called, the words echoing up and down the stairwell.  
  
"Wait!" Mimi called again, but he was gone. She considered running after him, but in her present state she'd probably fall down the stairs. With a frustrated little stamp of her foot, she turned to the letter.  
  
It took several tries for her to pick it up-she was not built for bending over just then-but Mimi succeeded, and carried it back into the living room.  
  
"So, who was that?" Matt said, toweling off his hair from the shower as he came into the room. He was in his shirtsleeves, getting ready for a meeting with a prospective client.  
  
"Just the mail," Mimi said quietly.  
  
"It's early for that," Matt said, a quizzical look on his face. He paused; she looked odd. "Are you okay? You look pale...did you hurt yourself picking up the mail? I'm really sorry I couldn't go get it myself, but I don't think the mailman would have liked me coming out in a towel..."  
  
Mimi smiled. He was always worrying about her. *One of the reasons I love him,* she thought in mild amusement. *The little girl in me can't resist the princess treatment.*  
  
"I'm fine," she assured him, tearing open the letter. She did feel better. Seeing him had that effect on her. Pulling out a single sheet of paper, she scanned it quickly...then went white, reading it again as her other hand closed white-knuckled on the back of a chair next to her...  
  
"MATT!" she shrieked; he was there in a second, concern bright in his eyes.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
Mimi thrust the letter into his grasp with shaking hands. Matt frowned, reading it aloud.  
  
" 'Ishida residence, northern Odaiba, Tokyo - To whom it may concern. We regret the delay in contacting you regarding this matter and hope this lapse has not caused you any undue grief...'" Matt paused. "What matter? Who's this from?"  
  
Mimi was silent, still white as a sheet. Matt saw the shock on her face and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders before continuing, and she leaned gratefully against him.  
  
" 'Information has reached us concerning the unhappy end of a friend of yours, who also refused our invita...tion...'" His voice trailed off, as his throat closed with shock and renewed grief. "It's them..." he whispered hoarsely. "What do they want with her?"  
  
"Keep reading," Mimi said, her voice oddly strained.  
  
Matt didn't want to read any more. He didn't want the whole slough of terrible memories churned up again in his mind...the phone call in the middle of the night; the house surrounded by police-line markers; the blood on the garage floor; Mimi crying long hours into the night while he was helpless to comfort her, nearly as stricken as she... But he had to know why Mimi was so pale, and what these horrible men knew about their friend who had died six months before.  
  
He cleared his throat.  
  
"This information is...incorrect."  
  
There was a shocked silence.  
  
"What the hell?!" Matt stared at the paper clenched in his hand. "Incorrect?! It can't be incorrect! It's impossible! I saw the mess in that garage; there was enough blood to drown a goddamn horse in!"  
  
"Matt!" Mimi cried. He fell silent instantly, ashamed of himself, yet still hugely confused and angry.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said after a moment. "Mimi, I'm really sorry, but this has to be a trick! There's no way..." He stared at the end of the letter, finishing it out of a sheer need to know. " 'The matter is a delicate one of international importance, but we can inform you that love is not dead, and know that you will understand what we mean. And we can also say that where courage is, you will find love. We wish you luck and hope you will join us soon. Sincerely, Command..."  
  
"Oh, Matt," Mimi whispered, and he looked at her and saw that the shock had worn off, and bright hope was shining in her eyes. It tore at his heart...this had to be a trick, and she had fallen right into it! They'd finally started to heal, and these idiots started playing their games again with them! What would it do to Mimi to realize that this wasn't for real?  
  
"Mimi," he began, but her face was so full of light...  
  
"Is that all?" she asked, interrupting him.  
  
"I think so..." Matt said, and turned the paper over.  
  
"Hang on!" Mimi exclaimed, snatching it. On the back, a short postscript was scribbled in blue ink, in a familiar hand. "It's her writing," Mimi whispered. Matt gaped, taken aback. Mimi was right; those were the familiar loops and lines of Sora's handwriting. The message was short.  
  
  
  
'Dear Mimi and Matt-  
  
'How are you? Is the baby there yet? I am so sorry for what this must have done to you-they didn't tell me until yesterday that the verdict on my disappearance was murder. I've been so busy I hardly thought about home and all. It's not so bad here...but that's a long story. I'll tell it to you when you come. Best of luck-I love you all. I'm still lobbying for 'Ayame', by the way...and don't you dare name the poor child after me! I told you no twice already. Best wishes, from Sora.  
  
'PS - Hurry up and come! They weren't kidding about all that melodramatic 'courage and love' junk-I'm waiting my wedding gown on you, girl! You promised to be my best maid, remember? Don't make us wait too long!'  
  
  
  
Mimi let out a startled, delighted laugh.  
  
"It *is* her!" she jubilated. "Matt, she's alive! And engaged..." she let out a little squeal. "Oh, I knew it! I knew they were perfect for each other!"  
  
Matt blinked, a smile spreading slowly across his face. "What do you know..." he murmured, suddenly as relieved and happy as his wife. He paused, lost for words. "Well...what do you know," he repeated, and grinned.  
  
Mimi threw her arms around him, laughing and crying.  
  
"I can't believe it!" she cried, as he hugged her back, both of them grinning happily. "Matt, I-oh!"  
  
"What?" Matt said, still disoriented with surprise, which quickly turned into concern as Mimi let go of him and stepped back to lean on the table, a hand on her stomach.  
  
"Ohhh," Mimi groaned softly. "Matt...we're going to have to decide on that name really quickly..."  
  
Matt blanched. "Oh, my god," he said. "This is it, isn't it?"  
  
"Get the car," Mimi said after a moment, straightening up. "I'll call the hospital and tell them we're coming. Thank God for pre-registering..."  
  
"Right," Matt said, flustered. He started to run for the door, and stumbled over the same cushion as Mimi had, doing a nosedive to the floor. "Ack!"  
  
*crash!*  
  
Mimi gasped. "Are you okay?!"  
  
"Yeah," Matt said, sitting up with a rueful look on his face. "Just a little nervous..."  
  
"I could tell," Mimi said with a smile, holding up his car keys, which he'd left on the table. She tossed them to him, and he caught them neatly, looking sheepish.  
  
"Thanks..."  
  
Suddenly, Mimi let out another little cry.  
  
"Hurry!"  
  
Matt bolted out the door, white again. Mimi waited out the contraction, then reached for the phone. As she did, the letter came to mind again; she'd nearly forgotten it in her 'distraction'.  
  
*'Ayame'...it's a pretty name. We could call her Iris... Thanks, Sora.*  
  
Smiling, Mimi dialed the hospital.  
  
  
(Ayame Ishida, a girl, was born in the hospital just three and a half hours later, weighing eight pounds, three ounces, and screaming healthily. She had her father's eyes, to his delight. It was clear that her mother was going to be just fine when her father commented that she had her mother's lungs and was immediately beaned with a pillow. The new family went home two days later, and began a happy, if hectic, life...even though Matt never did make that meeting.)  
  
(And they all lived happily ever after...at least for the time being...)  
  
*OWARI*  
  
__________________________________  
  
  
(AN) All good things must come to an end...and Project: Moment is hereby owatta. Over and out, folks; the curtain has come down for the last time on this lengthy fic of mine. Props to everyone who wrote in with reviews, especially my diehards(you know who you are ^_^); to ff.net, of course; to the Beta Readers Anonymous; and to the wonderful folks at Toei who made this fantastic toy in the first place, and who are kind enough to let us amateurs squirrel around with it. Minna domo arigatou gozaimaaaasu!!  
  
So, what next? Well, you could go read my other fics; they're under my author name, Bandit. (I just finished a 92-page fic; I'm allowed to do a self-plug or three! M_~*) You could read other peoples' fics. You could go watch third season, though of course it's just not the same... OR, you could click on that link at the bottom of this page and notice that there's a little extra "chapter" waiting to be read... See you the next time around! -Bandit O_o 


	18. And Something Special...

~*~*~*~  
  
Spring is a time for beginnings. In the headquarters of the Project, the days were rife with beginnings of all kinds. The enemy attack of eighteen months before seemed millennia ago, and repairs and improvements had been made since. Almost no outward effects remained. The fifth Gathering was about to occur, and Command was delighted to know that an eighth Core Member had agreed to come to the HQ. The ranks of the Second Joined were swelling.  
  
In the training halls of the complex, more and more young soldiers practiced for future missions, bright-eyed with idealistic fervor. Inventors invented, doctors healed, programmers programmed and nutrition staff cooked. The HQ had never run so smoothly, and life there was almost beginning to seem normal to the people who made it run. One thing about the HQ was the fact that everyone there had a niche. There was no worry of being useless or not needed, and there was certainly no fear of having nothing to do. There was *always* something to do.  
  
But normality is by definition an illusion, as the members of the Project would soon see. A storm was brewing beyond the horizon, preparing to come boiling over into sight and do its best to sweep them away. They would soon be reminded of a simple fact:  
  
Every new beginning means another beginning's end.  
  
  
**Chapter 1- Power's Play**  
  
"RUN!"  
  
Sora didn't need Tai to tell her that; she was already running as fast as she could, pelting down the dark, smoke-filled hallway as though her life depended on it.  
  
Come to think of it, maybe it did.  
  
Bullets flew past their ears as they sped along, and when Sora glanced over her shoulder to fire off a shot at their pursuers, she could see the dim shapes close behind, partly obscured by the fog...  
  
She fired, and the recoil from the slug-thrower hit her just as they skidded around an unexpected corner. Sora stumbled, and in that split second, a bullet caught her in the leg. She swore, falling against a wall panel and tumbling to the metal floor with a thump.  
  
"Damn! Tai, a little help would be good here!"  
  
He'd run on a few steps past her, but at her words he stopped and spun. It didn't take him more than a moment to realize what had happened; the skewed positioning of her useless leg told him instantly, as Sora leaned half-sitting, half-lying, against the wall.  
  
"Damn is right," he said, and hurried back to clumsily help her to her feet. "Here, lean on me. No, backward. You fire, I'll steer. Try to hold them off. Come on!"  
  
They got themselves positioned, and took off at an awkward shuffle down the hallway. Sora forced herself to keep a cool head, aiming back and firing at the misty shapes bearing down on them. Once, twice, three times; the first shot missed, but she had the satisfaction of watching the second and third impact, taking one enemy in the shoulder and another down completely. She grinned wolfishly, her leg forgotten, and fired again.  
  
Instead of a bullet, her gun let out a *click*.  
  
"What the...?" Sora quickly twisted open the back of the gun. Empty. "Shit! Tai, I'm out!"  
  
"Oh, great," Tai muttered. Sora started to let go of him. "Hey, what are you doing?!" Tai cried as she stumbled back from him.  
  
"You can't take me along!" Sora said. "I'm dead weight without any ammo, Tai! Just go!"  
  
Tai hesitated for a long moment, eying the approaching enemy...  
  
And then cracked open the ammo well of his own gun, tipping half the bullets inside into his hand.  
  
"Here," he said, grabbing her gun and loading it. "Now you can shoot." He handed the gun back to her, as Sora stared at it.  
  
"But Tai...your bullets..."  
  
"Hey, if they protect you, they protect me," he said with a grin. "I almost lost you twice, remember? I'm not going through that again." With that, he slid an arm around her waist to support her. Sora gave him a look that was half exasperation and half affection, and they headed off down the corridor without another word.  
  
They were both breathing hard by the time they reached a small maintenance ladder. The enemy was still coming on, but more cautiously than before. They evidently didn't want to take any more chances with this supposedly 'helpless' prey. Tai and Sora exchanged glances, looking from the tiny, precarious ladder to Sora's useless leg to the misty shapes bearing down on them. It wasn't a very long climb, just to ceiling height, but the flimsy ladder looked hard for even an unharmed fighter to hold on to. Sora gave her gun a pat.  
  
"You go ahead, Tai. It should be right above us... I'll cover you."  
  
Tai nodded. "Right..." He knew that there was no way she could get up there on her own, however much he wanted her to be out of danger first. He grabbed the rungs and began to climb quickly toward the tiny access hatch above.  
  
At the far end of the corridor, the enemy had figured out what they were up to. A rain of bullets filled the air around them. Sora swore, aiming and firing back. One, two, three shapes fell...a fourth tried to rush her, but she kept her cool, plugging it right in the center of mass. It let out a yell and collapsed.  
  
"Uh, Tai? Anytime now would be good!" Sora called up the ladder shaft. Above her, Tai's face popped into view, followed by both his arms.  
  
"I'm up! Grab my hands!"  
  
Sora closed one eye, sighting along her barrel, and let loose a rain of cover fire. As more enemies dropped, tripping and slowing those behind them with their falling bodies, she holstered the gun in one swift motion and leaped with all the strength in her good leg, catching Tai's arms in a firm grip. He braced himself and pulled, as she kicked off from a ladder rung, and the combined effort brought them both up into the next story, tumbling across the floor land in a heap against a blinking bank of machinery and lights.  
  
Sitting up dizzily, Sora remembered where she was and immediately snapped out of her daze, rolling across the floor to the access hatch and slamming it shut. Only just in time: she could see the startled face of an enemy soldier staring up at her as the hatch closed with a bang. Slapping the locks into place, Sora turned back to the little room with a sigh of relief. They were safe for a few minutes...but it was a precarious safety. They were sitting ducks up here as soon as those soldiers managed to regroup and get out into the courtyard; the room was right at the side of the tower, sheltered from the outside only by the large sheetglass window that filled one wall. The other three walls were bordered with computer equipment. Tai was already bending over one of the machines, pulling a small metallic object out of his pocket and shoving it into the nearest disk drive.  
  
"Okay, Drac, do your thing," he muttered, standing straight. The little disk was Izzy's brainchild; it 'sucked' the information out of a system, downloading it into itself in mere minutes or less. Coupled with his other latest gadget, a disc that flooded the system with a fatal virus, it was perfect for both espionage and sabotage. The techs that worked on the project had nicknamed the discs Dracula and Swamp Thing, respectively.  
  
"Tai? We're gonna have a problem up here really, really soon..." Sora's voice was a bit strained, and with good reason. Tai could already hear the tramping of enemy feet coming toward the courtyard below.  
  
"C'mon, c'mon!" he hissed to the machine, as if it could hear him and download faster. The seconds dragged by...  
  
Suddenly, a shot whizzed past Sora's ear, accompanied by the crash of shattering sheetglass. Both operatives hit the deck, hands over their heads.  
  
"We've got company!" Tai yelled. Sora nodded.  
  
"Yeah, I was kinda figuring that..."  
  
At that moment, the indicator light on the outer edge of the disk lit up with a ping. "Yes!" Tai exclaimed, lunging and snatching it out of the drive. He tossed it to Sora, who caught it and tucked it into her own pocket before pulling out another small disk.  
  
"Catch," she called, as Tai obliged. Without waiting for him to insert the disk, she sat up, firing off several shots out through the now-empty window frame into the growing crowd of enemies below. A stray shot flew past her head, taking a few strands of loose hair with it, and she winced; still, for the moment the cries of chagrin from below outnumbered the bullets coming up. "That should keep their heads down for a few seconds at least," she muttered, ducking again.  
  
A few seconds were all they needed. Swampy's part of the job was much faster; it didn't take long to release the virus, and it would multiply on its own.  
  
"Ow!" Tai yelped, as a bullet hit his arm. He grabbed the now-useless limb, swearing.  
  
"Hang on!" Sora shouted. "Almost there..."  
  
The second disk whirred, made a soft hissing sound...and pinged.  
  
Both humans froze...  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
  
"The Double Fortress"  
Book 2 of the Shadow of the Xenophobe trilogy by Bandit  
  
*The Project gang returns in summer 2002!* 


End file.
